Cyngor Archaeoleg Brydeinig CYMRU Council for British Archaeology WALES ** Online Information for Archaeology in Wales **

In this issue:

Llandysul Excavations

Llandeilo Fort – Geophysical Survey

National Archaeology Days

The Grey Hill Landscape Research Project

2003 Autumn Meeting and Symposium

We apologise for the fact that, due to the Editor’s heavy work commitments, it has not been possible to produce the usual Newsletter this autumn. We have, however, made an abbreviated round-up of some of the results of work around Wales this summer which we hope will provide a little compensation for the lack of a full newsletter.

Llandysul Excavations

Cambria Archaeology is currently undertaking a major excavation just to the north of Llandysul, Ceredigion. The site includes three ring ditches, that are presumably the remains of ploughed out Bronze Age round barrows, and a palisaded enclosure. The enclosure is associated with a four-post structure, a possible roundhouse, two entrances and numerous pits and postholes. Numerous sherds of Iron Age pottery have been recovered from these features significantly increasing the quantity of material from the county. The work is being funded by the Welsh Development Agency in advance of the establishment of a small industrial park.

Llandeilo Fort – Geophysical Survey

A geophysical survey undertaken for Cambria Archaeology by Stratascan Ltd within Dinefwr Park, Llandeilo in February and March 2003 has revealed clear evidence for a Roman fort immediately to the south of Home Farm. The work was undertaken on behalf of the National Trust who are preparing a conservation plan for Dinefwr Park and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The fort has multivallate defences and an internal area of 1.54 hectares. The survey produced evidence for external activity alongside roads leading to the fort from the northeast and southeast. A further structure 230m to the northwest may also be related to the fort and could be a bathhouse. The results of the survey strongly suggest that the fort is superimposed over an earlier, larger fort with a slightly different alignment. The full extent of this earlier fort is currently uncertain and it may extend beyond the areas covered by the geophysical survey. The presence of a fort in Llandeilo has long been suspected and previous finds of pottery and coinage has strongly indicated that the area of Home Farm was the most likely location.

National Archaeology Days

The Denbighshire Branch of the Young Archaeologists Club was extremely lucky this year to have a small encampment of the Ermine Street Guard based at Loggerheads Country Park for National Archaeology Days, July 19th and 20th. We had a centurion, legionaries and auxiliaries. Over the weekend 5,000 people saw drill displays and were able to talk to the 'soldiers' about the equipment and food that they had brought with them. As well as their uniforms the medical kit was a great source of interest as were the two handstitched goatskin tents which the group had made. Each tent would have slept eight men, and stored their equipment. The group also had with them a handquern which everyone enjoyed using, flatbread made from the flour was used to make 'biscuits' for the soldiers lunchtime rations. Youngsters from the Young Archaeologists Club and their families, dropped in over the whole weekend and were really interested to see and join in with the re-enactment.

The Grey Hill Landscape Research Project

Following last year’s successful first season, reported in Past 44 and the forthcoming Archaeology in Wales, work continued in May and June of this year on the Gray Hill Landscape Research Project in Monmouthshire. Gray Hill or Mynydd Llwyd is a distinctive hill approximately 2km north-east of Caerwent. A stone circle, standing stones and some prehistoric cairns were known, but a survey carried out in 1999-2000 by Graham Makepeace identified many more archaeological features, including possible prehistoric co-axial field boundaries and further cairns. There is also a large, D-shaped scarp-edge enclosure that may be of earlier Bronze Age or Neolithic date. The hill now forms the focus for a University of Wales Newport landscape research project, directed by Adrian Chadwick and Joshua Pollard.

Excavations in 2002 concentrated on the D-shaped enclosure bank, and a large stone cairn nearly 15m across. In 2003 work continued on the D-shaped enclosure. An inturned stone entrance was discovered, with two large postholes, one with a postpipe packed with charcoal, probably representing an earlier timber structure. Two trenches examined some of the co-axial field boundaries on the hill, and in one of these a roughly circular, small clearance cairn some 3m across had been added to the double-orthostat boundary. There was further linear clearance against one side of the boundary, and some of the larger orthostat blocks were probably deliberately pushed over at some time in the past.

Further work on the large cairn revealed a circle of raised tabular stone slabs, offset within a larger stone ring bank. Radial divisions between the two circles were infilled with different dumping episodes, of ‘fresh’ fractured stone and more worn rubble. A ‘pavement’ of horizontal stone slabs surrounded a central pit, whose fill produced a segmented faience bead, and two barbed and tanged flint arrowheads. The faience bead is the first ever recovered from south Wales, and one of only four known from the whole of Wales.

A comprehensive series of samples for potential C-14 dating, Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating and micromorphological analysis were taken, and further grant funding will be sought for this. SCARAB, the Board of Celtic Studies and the British Academy funded the 2003 season. Clearly, Gray Hill represents an extremely important multi-period upland archaeological landscape, and it is hoped that the work of the project will continue for the next three to four years. If anyone wants to volunteer for the 2004 season, or wants further details about the project, please contact Adrian Chadwick on: adrian.chadwick@newport.ac.uk.

Adrian M. Chadwick

2003 Autumn Meeting and Symposium

The Autumn Business Meeting of CBA Wales/Cymru will be held in Lecture Theatre A02 of the North East Wales Institute (NEWI) Plas Coch Campus, Wrexham at 11.00 am on Saturday 18 October 2003.

The Annual General Meeting will be held immediately thereafter at 12:30.

The afternoon will be devoted to the Autumn Symposium which will be a special meeting to thank Frances Lynch on her retirement (for the second time) from her term as Chairman of CBA Wales/Cymru. The afternoon’s talks will reflect her work and interests.