Stonehenge is unique among prehistoric stone circles. Its stones are shaped and they carry lintels but the most extraordinary feature is that its stones have been brought to Salisbury Plain from elsewhere. Stonehenge’s sarsen stones (a type of silcrete) are thought to have been brought from the Marlborough Downs 20 miles (30 km) to the north (Parker Pearson 2016). More extraordinarily, the smaller ‘bluestones’ (mostly under 4m long and under 4 tons each) come from the Preseli region of west Wales, 140 miles (225 km) away. ‘Bluestone’ is actually a term that covers Stonehenge stones of varying geology: spotted dolerite, ordinary dolerite, rhyolite, volcanics and sandstone. Stonehenge was built in five stages, the earliest dating to 3000–2755 BC and the second stage (when the sarsen circle and trilithons – two upright stones with a third across the top – were erected) to 2620–2480 BC (Darvill et al. 2012). Twentieth-century archaeologists used to think that the bluestones did not arrive at Stonehenge until long after this first stage (Atkinson 1979; Cleal, Walker and Montague 1995) but reassessment of early 20th-century excavations, coupled with re-excavation inside Stonehenge, has raised the probability that the bluestones were installed in its first stage (Parker Pearson et al. 2009; Willis et al. 2016). We now think that bluestones were set into pits known as the Aubrey Holes to form a circle of standing stones at this early date. A second, smaller bluestone circle (‘Bluestonehenge’) was erected nearby, beside the River Avon at West Amesbury (Allen et al. 2016).

中文翻译：

---

巨石阵的起源：在青石的轨道上

巨石阵在史前石圈中是独一无二的。它的石头是异形的，带有carry石，但最不寻常的特征是它的石头是从其他地方带到索尔兹伯里平原的。人们认为巨石阵的sarsen石头（一种silcrete石头）是从Marlborough Downs带到北方20英里（30公里）的地方（Parker Pearson，2016年）。更特别的是，较小的“蓝石”（大多长在4m以下，每个在4吨以下）来自西威尔士的Preseli地区，相距140英里（225公里）。“蓝石”实际上是一个术语，它涵盖了各种地质形式的巨石阵石头：斑点钙云母，普通钙云母，流纹岩，火山岩和砂岩。巨石阵分五个阶段建造，最早的时期可追溯到公元前3000–2755年，第二阶段（当建立sarsen圈和trilithon时–竖立了两块直立的石头，第三块横过顶部–竖立）到了公元前2620–2480年（Darvill等人，2012）。二十世纪的考古学家曾经认为，青石直到第一阶段很久之后才到达巨石阵（Atkinson 1979； Cleal，Walker和Montague 1995），但是重新评估了20世纪早期的发掘，并在巨石阵内部进行了重新发掘。提高了蓝石在第一阶段安装的可能性（Parker Pearson等2009; Willis等2016）。我们现在认为，在此早期阶段，青石被放入称为Aubrey洞的坑中，形成一圈站立的石头。在附近竖立了一个较小的第二个青石圈子（'Bluestonehenge'），