From many generations' past, my Jones surname ancestors have considered the stones at Stonehedge. Since the days of Indigo Jones (1620-1625) who was the earliest to give his opinion as to the origin of all the stones, many have joined to discuss this circle of mysteries. One of the greatest mysteries has been the bluestones.
Discussed most astutely with lots of diagrams and beautiful pictures, the text by David Souden reveals many of the items discovered that have been most recently explored. Bluestones are summarized pages 36 - 39 and pages 80-83. His "Re-evaluation" states: "Coming as they did from a landscape rich in standing stone monuments, the bluestones may already have been an existing setting moved wholesale to Wiltshire: a trophy of war, an expression of priestly power, a gift perhaps?" [ The stones were taken from Preseli Mountains S.W Wales, about 250 miles away!]
Now from an ancestor of the first to suggest a theory to where all these stones originated, let me give some thoughts. First, my Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, McGraw-Hill, 4th edition, 1989, states (p. 234) that bluestone is classified as a mineral and is officially called Chalcanthic (kal- kan-thit) p.326. It is described as "a blue-to-bluish-green mineral". It joins elements of copper (Cu), sulphur (S) and water (H2O) molecules into a copper sulfate pentahydrate. Secondly, my college chemistry book, Chemistry: Principles and Properties by Sienko and Plane, 1966 (another exciting book by McGraw-Hill!) states p. 448 : "Probably the best known cupric compound is copper sulfate pentahydrate." Cu (H2O)4 SO4 H2O. [please note - can not type subscripts as written in text but hopefully you get the idea] It goes on to state, "In this material each cupric ion is surrounded by a distorted octahedron of oxygen atoms; four of these lie in a square and belong to four H2O molecules, and the other two belong to neighboring sulfate groups. [sounds like a fun neighborhood] Continuing it states "The odd H2O molecule, the fifth one, is not directly bound to the cupric ion but forms a bridge between SO4 and other H2O groups. [sort of like a bridge over troubled waters]!!! It ends by giving the most significant information regarding our bluestones. "The pentahydrate, or blue vitriol, as it is sometimes called, is used extensively as a germicide and fungicide [italics mine], since the cupric ion is toxic to lower organisms. Its application to water supplies for controlling algae and its use on grapevines to control molds depend on this toxicity."
So there you have it! You can just guess how many Athlete Feet were walking around all these bluestones. As recent 2008, in an article on "Secrets of Stonehenge" [National Geographic, June 2008, pp.34-59] the bones of a "Distant Traveler" thought to have grown up in the Alps and to be buried around 2400 B.C. raised the question "what brought him to within a few miles of Stonehenge at its height?" (now called "Amesbury Archer" pp. 52-53) Well, who would not want to go to the Mayo Clinic of the day and get washed in all that blue vitriol!
P.S. Here is a scan of a picture of Inigo Jones (1573-1652) [see post 15 Dec 2021]. My family tree genealogy in Research Notebooks: RN#138 and RN#138A and can be seen The Jones Genealogist Research Notebooks [https://tjgresearchnotebooks.blogspot.com] which was started as a blog 6 July 2012.
