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Stonehenge’s Stones Can SingStonehenge's mighty bluestones sing when struck

By Colin Schultzsmithsonianmag.comMarch 10, 2014

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Roughly 5,000 years ago, a group of people, for some reason, dragged massive stones 140 miles from Wales to Wiltshire, England, arranging them in aseries of concentric circles to create Stonehenge. For years, we've been trying to figure out what was remarkable enough about these rocks to make thelong-distance journey worth the effort—particularly the massive bluestones, which at ten feet long and weighing four tons, must have been truly special tojustify bringing them all that way.

In a new study, says the Bath Chronicle, researchers think they've figured out why these stones were favored:

The bluestones ‘sing’ when they are hit, resonating with an apparently unique twang that does not appear to reach the same pitch or musicalnote as other stones which merely ‘thud’.

Some previous theories surrounding Stonehenge’s sonic qualities – the way the stone circle would have captured and reverberated sound –had been rather dismissed by the experts concentrating on astronomy and landscape, but the new study appears to reinforce the importanceof sound, and the sonic qualities of the stones themselves.

“We found it was a noteworthy soundscape, with a significant percentage of the actual rocks making metallic sounds like bells, gongs, tin

Stonehenge’s Stones Can Sing | Smart News | Smithsonian http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/stonehenges...

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drums, etc, when tapped with small, handheld ‘hammerstones’,” said Paul Devereux, the study’s co-leader, a research associate at the collegeand an expert in archaeo-acoustics.

The Daily Mail has recordings of similar stones being struck.

Recent research has rewritten somewhat the story of the stones, with geologists tracking their origin not to the traditional site of Carn Menyn, where theacoustic researchers did their study, but to the nearly Carn Goedog. Both regions, however, are still part of the larger geological feature that is the MynyddPrescelly, or the Preseli Hills.

Stonehenge may have been a place of healing, or a celebration of the solstice, or both and more. But “if you’re building a monument,” says Robinson Meyerfor the Atlantic, “ why not build it out of stones that speak?”

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About Colin Schultz

Colin Schultz is a freelance science writer and editor based in Toronto, Canada. He blogs for Smart News and contributes to the American GeophysicalUnion. He has a B.Sc. in physical science and philosophy, and a M.A. in journalism.

Read more from this author | Follow @_ColinS_ Around the Web

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