Exact source of Stonehenge rocks identified

Researchers have been able to pinpoint the specific source of the Stonehenge rocks.

For nine decades, it's been established that many of Stonehenge's smaller rocks hail from the Preseli Hills in Wales.

The new research suggests that the rocks-known as bluestones, of which there are many types-may not have been transported there by humans at all, Fox News reported.

As head researcher Dr. Richard Bevins explains, in 1923, geologist H.H. Thomas identified Carn Meini as the source of spotted dolerite bluestones, but a new analysis of the rocks' chemical makeup has fingered Carn Goedog as the true home of at least 55 percent of those used at Stonehenge, according to Planet Earth.

In 2011, Bevins' team pinpointed the source of another of type of Stonehenge's bluestones, called rhyolites, about two miles away from Carn Goedog at Craig Rhos y Felin.

And if those are the true origins, "it does bring into question the stones being transported by rafts down to the Bristol Channel, because both of these outcrops lie on the northern side of the Preseli Hills," meaning they would have to be dragged across the hills' summits to access the water.

The research is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.