The Alter Stone
A paper published in June 2026 in Journal of Quaternary Science is a reminder that no one remembers the old dead gods, and no one mourns their passing, although they, like today’s god or gods, were real in the minds of their followers and provided their priesthoods and ruling elites with an excuse for wielding considerable unelected and unaccountable power. The paper reports on the likely origin and possible mode of transport of the so-called Altar Stone of Stonehenge — a feat which speaks of the political and social power needed to command, organise and supply a large cohort of labourers, and perhaps to exercise that power over a considerable part of the island of Great Britain.
I have written several times about the old dead gods, particularly those of Wiltshire, who inspired the building of such enduring monuments as Silbury Hill, Stonehenge and Durrington Walls. These immense civil engineering projects suggest a population large enough to support a substantial, non-productive labour force, and a ruling elite able to command and supply the workers. In turn, that suggests a unifying culture, almost certainly religious, which regarded these works as worthwhile, or even necessary, perhaps to placate or please a god or pantheon of gods and so ensure that the crops succeeded, the seasons returned in their proper order, and tomorrow was much like today, free from natural disasters, plagues and pestilence.
Of course, we do not now even know the names of these gods, let alone what their followers believed they did, but we can be fairly sure that their followers believed they needed them and worked hard to keep them ‘on side’. The extraordinary lengths to which people went, in moving stones, raising earthworks and reshaping the landscape, were probably acts of collective devotion, obligation and power, expressed in stone and soil. Given the evidence of ancient trackways converging on Salisbury Plain, the area was almost certainly one of widespread ceremonial and religious significance, perhaps known far beyond Wiltshire.
Ask those people what evidence they had for their god or gods, and they would almost certainly have given much the same ‘reasons’ as today’s theists: ‘Look at the trees!’, ‘The evidence is all around you’, ‘Who makes the sun rise?’, ‘Who sends diseases to punish us?’, and so on. The logic was the same; only the names of the gods have changed. And now even those names have gone.
One alternative explanation for the appearance of the Altar Stone at Stonehenge is that it was transported naturally by a glacier. However, analysis of its mineral grains, particularly its detrital zircon age signature, points to the Orcadian Basin of northeast Scotland as its most likely broad source region. The researchers reason that, although some Ice Age transport by glaciers may have been possible, especially towards the North Sea and Dogger Bank, there was no viable glacial pathway capable of carrying the stone all the way to Salisbury Plain. And even if a glacier had moved it as far as Dogger Bank, the timing creates another difficulty: by the time Stonehenge was constructed, Doggerland had already been inundated by rising post-glacial sea levels.
The researchers therefore conclude that, although glacial transport could have played some part in the stone’s earlier history, it cannot explain its final arrival at Stonehenge. Human transport remains the most likely explanation for that last, extraordinary stage of the journey. Perhaps the stone had some special cultural or religious significance, rather like the later Stone of Scone, which made it seem worth the considerable effort and manpower involved. Although the authors do not explore the motives of those who moved it, it is difficult to escape the suspicion that the motive was religious or ceremonial — the same kind of motive that later drove people to build cathedrals, mosques, monasteries and temples across Europe and western Asia.
Some Old Dead Gods. One of the more sobering lessons of history is that gods can die — not physically, of course, because they never had physical existence, but socially, politically and culturally. They die when people stop worshipping them, stop fearing them, stop building temples for them, stop sacrificing to them, stop appointing priests to speak on their behalf, and stop teaching their children that these invisible beings control the harvest, the weather, disease, victory in war or the fate of the dead.And yet those gods were ephemeral and died with their last believers.
To their followers, however, these gods were not myths. They were real, powerful and necessary. They explained why the sun rose, why crops failed, why children died, why rivers flooded, why armies won or lost, and why rulers should be obeyed. They were woven into law, kingship, warfare, agriculture, morality and social control. Then, as cultures changed, empires fell and rival religions gained power, they simply slipped from living faith into archaeology, literature and folklore.
- Marduk, for example, was once the great god of Babylon, elevated to lordship over the gods and associated with the destiny of kings and kingdoms. His temple stood at the heart of one of the most powerful cities of the ancient Near East. Yet no modern state seeks his blessing before going to war, and no priesthood now claims to speak for him.
- Baal, or the Baalim, was worshipped across parts of the ancient Near East, often as a lord of rain, fertility and agricultural abundance. To farming communities dependent on seasonal rains, such a god would have seemed indispensable. Today, his name survives mostly in archaeology, ancient texts and theological polemic.
- Isis, one of ancient Egypt’s most important goddesses, was worshipped not only in Egypt but across much of the Roman world. She was invoked as mother, protector, healer and mourner, and her temples and rites once attracted devotees far beyond the Nile valley. Yet her cult, too, passed into history, leaving statues, inscriptions and stories rather than living political power.
- Mithras, whose mystery cult spread through the Roman Empire, attracted soldiers, merchants and officials, with temples found as far away as Roman Britain. His followers met in special shrines, used distinctive imagery, and appear to have regarded initiation into his rites as spiritually significant. But the god who once had temples under Roman cities is now mostly a subject for archaeologists and museum visitors.
Britain had its own forgotten gods too. Under Roman rule, local Celtic deities were often merged with Roman ones, as with Sulis Minerva at Bath, where the sacred spring became the focus of worship, offerings and curse tablets. Those who appealed to Sulis Minerva clearly believed she could intervene in everyday life, punish thieves and right wrongs. Today, the tablets are artefacts, and the goddess is a name on a museum label.
Stonehenge almost certainly belonged to an even older religious world; one whose gods are now nameless. No scripture preserves their myths. No priesthood continues their rituals. No believer now claims that the Altar Stone must be honoured to keep the seasons turning. Yet the labour invested in Stonehenge, Silbury Hill, Durrington Walls and the wider ceremonial landscape of Salisbury Plain strongly suggests that these forgotten powers once mattered intensely to the people who served them.
That is what makes the old dead gods so instructive. They remind us that sincerity is not evidence, tradition is not truth, and social power is not proof. A god (or rather its priesthood and those who invoke its name) can dominate a culture, command labour, inspire monuments and terrify generations — and still end up as nothing more than a name, a ruin, or a puzzle for historians.
The paper in Journal of Quaternary Science is accompanied by a news release from Curtin University by Lucien Wilkinson:
Study details epic transportation of Stonehenge stone across ancient Britain
New research by Curtin University has revealed how one of Stonehenge’s most mysterious stones was likely transported hundreds of kilometres across Britain through challenging terrain, highlighting the remarkable capabilities of ancient communities.
Stonehenge’s central Altar Stone is a six-tonne sandstone megalith now believed to have originated in northeast Scotland, around 700km from Salisbury Plain, underscoring the extraordinary scale of its journey.
The new study builds on earlier findings that ruled out glaciers as the sole mechanism for moving the stones, strengthening the conclusion people were responsible for transporting them across difficult terrain rather than relying on natural Ice Age processes.
Researchers have now focused on what that journey may have looked like, combining mineral grain dating with ice-sheet modelling to pinpoint the stone’s origin and test whether glaciers could have carried it south.
Co-lead author Dr Anthony Clarke, from the Timescales of Minerals Systems Group within Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the findings suggest the journey was far from simple and likely required careful planning across multiple stages.Rather than being carried naturally by ice, the evidence points to a deliberate, carefully planned movement across a challenging and varied landscape. Our modelling shows glaciers may have transported rocks part of the way during the last Ice Age — potentially as far as Dogger Bank in the North Sea — but not into southern England, meaning the stone would still have needed to be moved hundreds of kilometres by people.
The research indicates there were no viable glacial pathways linking the source region directly to Stonehenge, reinforcing the conclusion that human transport was required. Instead, this suggests the stone was likely moved in stages, potentially combining overland hauling with river or coastal transport where possible.
Dr Anthony J.I. Clarke, co-lead author
Timescales of Minerals Systems Group
Curtin University
Perth, Western Australia.
Dr Clarke said the findings reveal a level of organisation and cooperation among Neolithic communities not previously fully appreciated.
Transporting a stone of this size over such a long distance would have required planning, coordination and a deep understanding of the landscape – not to mention tremendous determination. The study demonstrates how combining geological analysis with computer modelling can help resolve long-standing questions about how Stonehenge was built.
Dr Anthony J.I. Clarke.
Future research will aim to pinpoint the Altar Stone’s exact source in northeast Scotland and further investigate possible transport routes used by prehistoric communities.
The research was conducted in collaboration with experts from Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield, Wessex Archaeology, and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.
Publication:
And so the Altar Stone, whether it was dragged, carried, rafted, rolled, hauled over land, moved by water, or brought part of the way by glacial action and then by human effort, stands as a mute witness to a lost world of belief. The people who invested such effort in bringing it to Salisbury Plain almost certainly did not do so for amusement, decoration, or idle curiosity. They did it because, in their minds, something immensely important depended on it — perhaps the favour of gods whose names no one now remembers.
Those gods would have seemed every bit as real to their worshippers as today’s gods seem to their followers. Their believers would have looked at the world around them and seen divine purpose, divine anger, divine generosity and divine judgement. A good harvest would have confirmed the gods’ favour; a failed harvest would have confirmed their displeasure. A disease, a storm, a birth, a death, a flood or a drought could all be fitted into the same self-confirming pattern of belief. The evidence was “all around them”, just as today’s believers so often claim the evidence for their own god is “all around us”.
But the fact that people believed these things sincerely, organised their lives around them, and built enduring monuments in their name did not make those gods real and nor did the works they inspired. It merely shows how powerful shared belief can be when bound to fear, authority, tradition and social pressure. The old gods of Wiltshire, Babylon, Egypt, Rome and countless other cultures once had worshippers, priests, rituals, sacred places and political influence. Now they are gone, not because they died, but because people stopped believing in them.
There is no obvious evidential difference between those forgotten gods and the gods still worshipped today. The arguments are the same: look at nature, explain the unknown with agency, mistake coincidence for intention, and call tradition evidence. The only real difference is that some gods have already completed the journey from theology to mythology, while others are still travelling the same road.
Stonehenge, then, is more than an archaeological puzzle. It is a monument to human ingenuity, organisation and endurance — and also to the ease with which human beings can mistake imagination for knowledge when religion supplies the explanation. The Altar Stone may once have helped hold a sacred world together. Today, it helps show how easily sacred worlds vanish, leaving behind only stones, questions and the uncomfortable reminder that today’s certainties can become tomorrow’s dead gods.
Rosa's First Law Of Theodynamics
Gods can be created out of nothing, and, when their last believer dies, they disappear without trace.
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Gods can be created out of nothing, and, when their last believer dies, they disappear without trace.
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