now a new analysis shows that the six ton iconic alter stone at the heart of Stonehenge originated from Northeastern Scotland rather than Southwest Wales the discovery shows that its construction was a far greater collaborative effort than scientists believe here's our science correspondent palab Goos it's one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world and also one of the most mysterious why was Stonehenge built in Southwest England 5,000 years ago and what was it used for what we do know is that the giant outer stones are probably sourced locally from England the inner blue stones are from Wales and we now know that the central alter stone is from Northeastern Scotland and not from Wales as once thought the irony is that the discovery was made by a young Welshman he still remembers being brought to the site as a one-year-old in 1992 I remember coming with my dad and being on his shoulders and looking over at the stones so it's nice to kind of come full circle and make this Discovery at somewhere so special to me you're a a proud Welshman and you've taken the Welsh status away from the stone so how do you think it'll go down in Wales yeah I'm not sure they'll ever talk to me again it's a loss for Wales no doubt but Wales has contributed so many rocks to this Monument I'm sure Scotland can have one Anthony analyzed The Rock and discovered it had a unique de date and composition in the journal Nature he says it could only have come from the far north of Scotland here in the orcadian Basin which includes kith NES orne and Mory fth so this is the alter Stone the heart of Stonehenge now partially buried it's one of the largest Stones here at around 6 tons the big question is how on Earth it was transported from Northeast Scotland and why the people back then thought it was so important important to bring it all this way they must have been very technically Advanced to be able to do that to bring it down by boat bring it down on on sledges or whatever over and presume it wasn't just a matter of engineering there must have been some sort of social cohesion for you know the Scots and the Welsh and the English all to work together absolutely to to to bring this to here a sort of focus in a way at that time um there must have been linking between all of these areas so what does it say about about Neolithic Society in Britain well it certainly implies great social connections and sophistication and I think what we got to remember is these people were just like us in a way you know they were just as clever but they had different Technologies but to bring a stone of this size uh all the distance from what we now call Scotland is really quite something the new discovery has changed the story of Stonehenge and those that built it the tale is now of of a people across Great Britain who were more interconnected and advanced than previously thought who came together to build this incredible Monument palab go BBC News Stonehenge