What with the PENfro Book Festival at Rhosygilwen (chairman, for my sins) life has been a bit hectic lately. So I still haven't managed to look in on the dig at Rhosyfelin. And the other dig up the road, at Castell Mawr. Anyway, the rumour mill has been at work, and has spat out a few fragments of gossip.
1. At Castell Mawr, the search continues for the village that provided the quarrymen that provided the labour for digging out the stone that ended up at Stonehenge. If you see what I mean. So the assumed Iron Age fortified site (which is very spectacular) needs to be established to be much older -- preferably Neolithic. I'm pretty relaxed about that -- I imagine that many of the Iron Age sites will have older settlement traces beneath and around them. There is a lot of work going on there -- aimed at finding older "disappeared" ditches and embankments etc. Rumour has it that some very large post holes have been found there -- so we will no doubt have the place renamed at Durrington Fach before very long........
2. At Rhosyfelin -- the quarry hypothesis is still very much alive and kicking, and MPP is very happy that he has hammerstones and "railway lines" to show to the world. By railway lines, my mysterious informant presumably means a sort of trackbed of elongated stones over which a large stone might be moved? Anyway, all will be revealed in due course...
3. Apparently there is at least one Iron Age radiocarbon date from the site -- in a position that appears to have stratified sandy and gravelly materials on top of it. That is quite intriguing -- must go and have a look at it. If the date is correct, that means there has been some alluvial process going on over the last 2,000 years or so.
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