When the people of Israel crossed the Jordan, Joshua commanded the people to set up twelve stones which were taken from the Jordan River as a memorial celebrating that defining moment in the life of Israel, the entrance of the people into the land God had promised to their ancestors (Joshua 4:20). The purpose of those memorial stones was to remind future generations of how the people “crossed the Jordan River on dry ground” (Joshua 4:22).

In 1991, the earliest known roundel was found in Germany, also corresponding to the Stroked Pottery culture. Called the Goseck Circle, it is 246 feet (75 m) in diameter and had a double wooden palisade and three entrances. Because two of the entrances correspond with sunrise and sunset during the winter and summer solstices, one interpretation of the Goseck Circle is that it functioned as an observatory or calendar of sorts, according to a 2012 study in the journal Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (opens in new tab).

Valorize motion, not sitting still.

Equally, Waun Mawn did not become the core of a monument complexof the kind known around other great stone circles, such as the Ring of Brodgar, Aveburyand Stonehenge. Its development as a major centre in the earlier Neolithic (seeFigure 1)appears to have been curtailed by early dismantling. Although the region was probably notentirely evacuated—the four remaining stones at Waun Mawn possibly symbolise the iden-tities of those groups who remained local—it may have been extensively depopulated. Onlyfurther research into settlement and land-use employing other lines of evidence, such as paly-nology, will provide answers.

It seems more likely, however, that Waun Mawn contributed only a small pro-portion of Stonehenge’s 80 or so bluestones. This raises the question of whether multiplemonuments in Wales contributed monoliths to Stonehenge and Bluestonehenge

At 110m in diameter, Waun Mawn

As some of these samples could alsohave been either residual or intrusive, we propose that the stone circle was erected inc. 3600–3000 cal BC.This date would place Waun Mawn amongst the earliest stone circles in Britain, alongsideLong Meg and her Daughters in Cumbria (109m diameter) and the stone circle beneath thepassage tomb of Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey (18m diameter).