New research suggests the stones used to build Stonehenge may have been selected because of their acoustic properties.
"It hasn't been considered until now that sound might have been a factor," researcher Paul Devereux, "The percentage of the rocks on the Carn Menyn ridge are ringing rocks, they ring just like a bell," Paul Devereux, the principal investigator on the Landscape and Perception Project, told the BBC.
London's Royal College of Art worked to determine what "'Stone Age eyes and ears' would have heard and seen in a prehistoric landscape," the BBC reported.
The research team looked at thousands of stones around the Carn Menyn ridge, and found many of them would "ring" when struck.
"The percentage of the rocks on the Carn Menyn ridge are ringing rocks, they ring just like a bell," Devereux told the BBC. "And there's lots of different tones, you could play a tune. In fact, we have had percussionists who have played proper percussion pieces off the rocks."
This "sonic" quality could explain why the rocks were used to build the iconic Stonehenge. The ancient monument was built between n 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C. It has been a long-time mystery as to why the builders decided to move the heavy stones all the way from Pembrokeshire.
Researchers discovered in the 1920s that the stones used to build Stonehenge were hauled a staggering 199 miles from where they were quarried.
"We don't know of course that they moved them because they rang but ringing rocks are a prominent part of many cultures," professor Tim Darvill told the BBC. "You can almost see them as a pre-historic glockenspiel, if you like and you could knock them and hear these tunes. And soundscapes of pre-history are something we're really just beginning to explore."
