An archaeology professor is set to end a three-week walk across the country at Stonehenge to trace and learn more about the route that ancient people may have taken to transport large stones from Wales to South Wiltshire.
Professor Keith Ray, of Cardiff University, set out on his 20-day, 230-mile walk from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire on Tuesday, April 2, remaining on schedule to reach Stonehenge on Sunday, April 21.
In doing the walk, Keith aims to bring public attention to the possibility that overland transportation of the stones by ancient peoples may have been possible, by following one of the potential routes that would have been taken.
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A recent television documentary hosted by Dan Snow also included a demonstration at the Ancient Technology Centre in Cranborne on one of the methods that may have been used to transport the stones.
A document outlining the goals and schedules of the walk identified one objective as “to explore the possibility that overland (and not seaborne) transportation of the stones was achieved by teams of people dragging and guiding the cradled, individual stones” according to theories introduced by archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson.
Keith’s walk along the long route comes just one month after retired Durham University geography lecturer Dr Brian John published a paper in the academic journal The Holocene claiming that the giant blue stones at the monument did not come from Waun Mawn in the Preseli Hills.
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