# Stonehenge - Where did the missing stones go? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519 "2014-04-07T01:36:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/1 "2014-04-07T01:36:20Z")
The Stonehenge Heritage site notes that some of the stones are missing - but doesn’t say where they went. This site > **[The missing pieces of the Stonehenge jigsaw -- still missing](https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2010/08/missing-pieces-of-stonehenge-jigsaw.html)** > > A blog about Stonehenge, the bluestones and the Ice Age, concentrating on the theory that many of the stones at Stonehenge were carried by glaciers. says as many as 67 are missing. One theory is ‘they were never there’ -i.e. Stonehenge was never finished. Another is that they were broken taken and/or up. Both those explanations seem pretty lame - so I come to the experts; Anyone here know where the missing stones went?? Have any ever been found elsewhere? Any theories as to why they were taken? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/2 "2014-04-07T04:32:12Z")
Probably simply stolen, by people who had the technology to break them up into whatever size they could move or their industry needed. Why quarry new stones, when somebody left some perfectly good ones just standing there. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/3 "2014-04-07T04:43:23Z")
pavers. people who existed after they ceased to be special (like sacred) and before they got to be special (really old historical object) knew they were available material. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/4 "2014-04-07T04:49:19Z")
Broken up and used as erasers on the ends of chisels. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/5 "2014-04-07T05:14:03Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > people who existed after they ceased to be special (like sacred) and before they got to be special (really old historical object) knew they were available material. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/6 "2014-04-07T05:21:59Z")
The old joke: It’s exactly the way it was designed . . . just to confuse future archaeologists. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/7 "2014-04-07T05:22:24Z")
Stone Henge is fairly complete for as stucture between 4000 and 5000 years old. It’s surprising that there were so many stones left. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/8 "2014-04-07T05:33:47Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Probably simply stolen, by people who had the technology to break them up into whatever size they could move or their industry needed. Why quarry new stones, when somebody left some perfectly good ones just standing there. Just about. [http://qi.com/infocloud/henge](http://qi.com/infocloud/henge) > [@](#): > > Over the centuries nearly half of Stonehenge has been quarried away for building stone. In some cases fires were lit on the lintel stones to break them up. Visitors aware of the associations with Merlin would also chip pieces off the stones and throw them down wells to remove toads or used them to heal wounds. A hundred years ago the blacksmith in nearby Amesbury would hire out a hammer for chipping off bits of Stonehenge. Although not as big as Stonehenge the alleged (as there is no absolute certainty that it is) rock where the pilgrims landed first in Plymouth suffered a similar fate and after losing 2/3 of the original size due to pieces chipped away by souvenir hunters and tourists, the rock was more protected after the 1880’s. And the same thing happened with Stonehenge, after so many years of neglect they took the chisels away from the tourists in the 1900’s and roped the stones in the 1970’s. > **[Stonehenge Visitors Used To Be Handed Chisels to Take Home Souvenirs](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/stonehenge-visitors-used-be-handed-chisels-take-home-souvenirs-180949976/)** > > Chisels were banned in the early 1900s, and in 1977, the stones were roped off so people couldn’t climb on them any longer > [@](#): > > Eventually, Stonehenge was turned over to the nation, and visitors’ access was restricted. As visitorship increased, the grass in the center of the stones died from being trampled by 815,000 people each year. In 1977, the stones were roped off so people couldn’t climb on them any longer. > > But that doesn’t keep people from trying. In 2008, vandals chipped off a piece of the Heel Stone in an act of vandalism that the BBC calls “the first of its kind in many years." That’s pretty impressive, considering that, each year, about a million people visit Stonehenge. Although, last year, someone painted a smiley face on the monolith. And this is why we can’t have nice things. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/9 "2014-04-07T05:51:32Z")
[**Stonehenge**](http://www.cgfaonlineartmuseum.com/constabl/p-constable5.htm) in watercolour, as painted by John Constable in 1836. I wonder how accurately he painted the placement of the stones as they were at that time. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/10 "2014-04-07T07:16:12Z")
At nearby [Avebury](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury) (where there is also a big and ancient stone ring - more impressive than Stonehenge in some ways), the village intersects the monument - and there are houses that incorporate suspiciously large stones in the construction of their walls. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/11 "2014-04-07T08:52:40Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > [**Stonehenge**](http://www.cgfaonlineartmuseum.com/constabl/p-constable5.htm) in watercolour, as painted by John Constable in 1836. > > I wonder how accurately he painted the placement of the stones as they were at that time. It looks like someone has returned some of the stones since then. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/12 "2014-04-07T09:07:39Z")
I visited it on a family outing as a teenager. We wandered around unhindered and picnicked beside one of the stones. I think we did pay for parking though. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/13 "2014-04-07T09:12:45Z")
And it was extensively rebuilt in 1901 and many times since. [Stonehenge Rebuilt](http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicstonehenge.htm) The website is supposed to be ufos and aliens but the history of Stonehenge shown is pretty accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/14 "2014-04-07T09:17:02Z")
Stonehenge was restored (rebuilt) in progressive steps from 1901 to 1964. Many of the original stones are lost but the holes have been discovered and the whole henge was a substantial size with an avenue leading up to what we have today. Actually as best I can recall from a book on the subject, rebuilding started circa 1850 but my google-fu is low. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/15 "2014-04-07T15:36:19Z")
If you go to Salibury, you can see chunks of the ex-monastery in many of the facades of the old buildings around town. Compared to the effort of chopping a new block out of a quarry, using a pre-liberated chunk of rock is incredily simple, especially if it has also been moved quite close to you. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/16 "2014-04-07T16:00:51Z")
Many of the Avebury stones were “upset” into pits and buried or a fire built on them then water thrown over to break then into more manageable bits, ([Barber surgeon of Avebury - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_surgeon_of_Avebury) for a victim!) Stonehenge must have suffered similarly either through the need for stones or the impulse to destroy Devilish stones…Avebury sort of went the full cycle with houses built of stones in turn being knocked down to “restore” the monument. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/17 "2014-04-07T16:15:12Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > If you go to Salibury, you can see chunks of the ex-monastery in many of the facades of the old buildings around town. Compared to the effort of chopping a new block out of a quarry, using a pre-liberated chunk of rock is incredily simple, especially if it has also been moved quite close to you. No kidding; I think half of the old churches in Rome have ancient Roman columns or stones of some sort included. Hell, people in the Middle Ages were known to reuse sarcophagi! Charlemagne was buried (or so they think) in a 3rd century Roman sarcophagus. ---
**Author:** ![Sofis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Sofis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofis)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/18 "2014-04-07T19:43:14Z")
[Here’s](http://www.christerhamp.se/runor/gamla/dk/dksk51.html) an example of a runestone that was broken up in the late 1700s to build a bridge. It was reconstructed in 1985, with one piece being a replica since it could not be removed without destroying the bridge. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/19 "2014-04-07T19:58:00Z")
I was there last week, visiting the new visitors’ centre for the first time. One theory that was new to me was that Stonehenge was never completely finished, yet was completely functional; the most important alignment was probably midwinter sunset, so the henge was meant to be viewed from the East, from between the Heel stones (one of which is missing). the back side of the monument is difficult to see from that angle, so they never actually finished it, or if they did it was with inferior or undersized stones which quickly fell down. Note that modern pagans and hippies prefer to come to see the henge on Midsummer sunrise, and this means they need to view the henge from the back, substandard side. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519/20 "2014-04-07T20:14:48Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > pavers. > > people who existed after they ceased to be special (like sacred) and before they got to be special (really old historical object) knew they were available material. Mainly this, but probably some of them fell, and some disintegrated. Stonehenge is on an elevation, so it would be possible for a stone to fall away into a place where water would wash over it. The stones that are still there are complete, but rain-worn, and some of the other stones may have had faults, or cracks, and been more vulnerable, plus, if someone carried off part of a stone, and left pieces of it behind, those pieces wouldn’t have been anchored. So, not all the stones were the same quality to begin with-- good enough to last for a few hundred years, but Stonehenge is thousands of years old, and stones do disintegrate. But “people” accounts for most of it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stonehenge-where-did-the-missing-stones-go/685519.md?page=2)