Moving the Stonehenge Bluestones: St Fagans Festival of Archaeology

Last weekend The National History Museum of Wales at St. Fagans hosted the 2011 Festival of Archaeology weekend event :- Stone Moving Experiments organised by Dr Steve Burrows (National Museum of Wales).

As I've had my own say about how Neolithic people may have moved the heavy stones they used in their megalithic architecture (British Archaeology magazine march/April 2011) it was great to be invited to attend St Fagan's and participate in yet another stone-moving experiment.

Phil Morgan is a Welsh engineer who brought some of his engineering knowledge to bear on the age-old question archaeologists are frequently asked - "How did people move such heavy stones at the time of Stonehenge?"

I really liked Phil's use of A-frames to drag the wooden sled and stone - I think it's basically a good way of moving heavy weights. Definitely shows potential for manoeuvering the stones into place once at site. I'm not sure the method would have been used to move stones any great distance, but it was great to see the equipment Phil had designed and the hands-on experience again reminded me of the not inconsiderable obstacles Neolithic people encountered and overcame when building their megalithic tombs and stone circles.