Stonehenge may have been built to unite early Britons, says expert

Five thousand years after the first monument was created at Stonehenge, it continues to give up dramatic secrets - such as the "jaw-dropping" revelation this year that its central stone had been transported more than 700km to Salisbury plain from the very north of Scotland.

- Esther Addley

While it had been known for more than a century that the huge sarsens of Stonehenge came from more than 20km away and its "bluestones" originated in Wales, the discovery that the altar stone at its heart was Scottish caused an archaeological sensation and headlines around the world.

Now, a leading archaeologist and authority on Stonehenge has proposed a striking explanation for why its stones were transported such mind-boggling distances.

Stonehenge may have been erected to unite early farming communities across the island of Great Britain at a time of cultural stress, argues Mike Parker Pearson, a professor of British later prehistory at University College London - and the altar stone may have been taken from a distant Scottish monument as a gift or marker of political alliance.