Timeline of the Altar Stone Papers

With the release of a brace of papers about the Altar Stone in short order there is some confusion about who said what when.

The bombshell paper: Clarke, A.J.I., Kirkland, C.L., Bevins, R.E. et al. A Scottish provenance for the Altar Stone of Stonehenge. Nature 632, 570–575 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07652-1 was submitted on 16 December 2023 

As this suggested an Orcadian Basin (not Orkney) source for the stone the it is only to be expected that the basin should be searched for the best match. For the reasons expressed in the paper the Orkney Mainland was the prime suspect so that is where the first search was performed. This search was promptly reported by a large team of experienced experts:  Richard E. Bevins, Nick J.G. Pearce, Stephen Hillier, Duncan Pirrie, Rob A. Ixer, Sergio Andò, Marta Barbarano, Matthew Power, Peter Turner, Was the Stonehenge Altar Stone from Orkney? Investigating the mineralogy and geochemistry of Orcadian Old Red sandstones and Neolithic circle monuments The paper was fully peer reviewed but only the tiniest of revisions were needed so prompt electronic publication was possible.  

Surprisingly they drew a blank, which is in itself an illuminating result. The paper was over six months later to the original paper as it was submitted on 23 July 2024.

So all good scientific work as the investigators narrow their search down. No conspiracy theories needed here.