Stonehenge's Stones May Have Been Moved by Cows

A single ancient cow tooth uncovered at Stonehenge is offering fresh clues about the monument's mysterious Welsh origins—and suggesting cattle were used to transport the monument's massive stones across the UK. Researchers from University College London and other institutions analyzed a bovine jawbone discovered in 1924 close to the iconic landmark's southern entrance. Isotope tests on one tooth dated it to between 2995BC and 2900BC, around the time Stonehenge was constructed, and pointed to origins in Wales, according to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

This is the first direct link between Stonehenge cattle remains and Wales, and it "raises the tantalizing possibility that cattle helped to haul the stones" from Welsh quarries to the Salisbury Plain, UCL archaeologist Michael Parker Pearson, a senior author of the study, says in a release. Stonehenge's so-called bluestones are already known to have been sourced from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, nearly 200 miles away, though its altar stone appears to have came from further off in northeast Scotland.

By slicing the cow's third molar, researchers traced changes in the animal's diet and movement over six months of its second year of life, per Smithsonian. Isotope levels indicated the animal's winter diet came from woodland, while summer feeding happened on open pasture. Shifts in strontium and lead isotopes suggested travel between regions—or possibly that winter feed was imported from Wales. The lead also suggested the cow originated from an area with older Paleozoic rocks, like the Preseli Hills. Researchers found evidence that the cow was likely female and either pregnant or nursing during this period.