Kindle edition of "The Stonehenge Bluestones"

Here is a reminder that if you are intimidated by the price of the paperback edition of my book (fantastic value at just £15) you can get the full book in the Kindle edition for just £6.99.  Like most other "print replicas" of complex full-colour books in Ebook or Kindle editions, it's bit clunky here and there, from the point of view of the reader, and some of the formatting is difficult to replicate -- but on the whole the transfer to a digital format has worked better than expected.  Amazon has improved the conversion and uploading technology a lot in the last couple of years.

Here is the link to the Amazon web site:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ZXLLF34/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Latest reviews:

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Stonehenge. I really enjoyed the read as it was never one-sided and quite funny in places. Listening to other people's theories was much more interesting even though most believed it a there was nothing else in offer by anyone else hoping to find the answers to the mystery of stonehenge not to mention the stones. It was far more likely these stones were built where they was found.

Great study of Stonehenge. Written for the layman that wants a better understanding of the building of Stonehenge.

Happy Christmas!

 

Carn Briw stone collection

 

I have posted on Carn Briw before.  It's the Bronze Age (?) burial mound on the common to the south-west of Carningli.  As I have pointed out before, it's a classic example of a mound built of locally sourced materials -- gathered up from a scatter of "stone takes" or pits from a radius of about 50m of the burial site itself.  I came across this excellent photo taken for RCAHMW by Toby Driver on one of his winter flights.  The pock-marked moorland surface is beautifully shown.  The biggest of the pits is almost a metre deep and almost 2m across, but most are a lot smaller than that.  So availability of stone may well have been one of the prime reasons why this burial site is where it is -- this is essentially a periglacial block field covered in till and frost-shattered bedrock debris, partly masked by soil and vegetation.

Experimental archaeology: staggering new experiment reveals truth about Stonehenge bluestone transport

 

News has just reached us of a staggering new experiment conducted in conditions of some secrecy,  at a location in the heart of Bluestone Country, during the Pandemic lockdown.  Purely by chance, the Bluestone Brewery is not very far away.  A carefully selected team of stone pullers,  chosen for their strength and ingenuity, was assembled and after a detailed briefing from a senior archaeologist who shall be nameless, they embarked upon what must surely be the definitive piece of Stonehenge experimental archaeology.  It’s great to see some serious scientific work at long last, after all that storytelling. 

The stills above are taken from a rigourously  assembled video film of the experiment, which will no doubt find its away into the National Museum archives.

From an intensive examination of the footage, we can safely say that we now know what actually happened all those years ago. First, find your stone and give it a good wash. Next, have a few beers. Next, build your sledge and get the stone onto it with the aid of a JCB. Next, move it about 50 yards, or until you get thirsty, whichever is the greater.   Next, try to move it to Stonehenge.  Next, give up in disgust. Next, stick it up in the field where you found it, with the help of the JCB.  Next, potter off and have a few more beers. Now you know.

The full scientific paper relating to this enterprise will in due course be published in Antiquity, or the Sun or some other learned publication.  We look forward to that.

Blogger photo gallery

There are now literally thousands of photos on this blog site.  If you want to scroll through them, in order to find something or other, you can find my photo galleries here:

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/112312986974547323674/albums/photos-from-blogger

One problem is that once you find a photo, you can't go straight back to the post in which it was featured.  That's a big defect in the Google indexing system.  Anyway, please take a look and let me know if there are any problems!

PS -- Sorry that this link does not seem to work properly.  Working on it........

Wicklow Ice Dome

This is a very interesting paper, to which I shall return, since it tells us quite a lot about what might have happened on the other side of the St George's Channel..........

=============

Vertical dimensions and age of the Wicklow Mountains ice dome, Eastern Ireland, and implications for the extent of the last Irish Ice Sheet
Colin K. Ballantyne, Danny McCarroll, John O. Stone
Quaternary Science Reviews 25 (2006) pp 2048–2058
31 January 2006

Abstract

Patterns of erratic distribution show that the Wicklow Mountains formerly supported an independent ice cap or ice dome. Geomorphological mapping of the upper limits of evidence for glaciation (ice-scoured and moulded bedrock, perched boulders) and the distribution of features indicative of prolonged periglacial conditions (tors, frost-shattered rock, blockfields) indicates that along the main axis of high ground erosive warm-based ice buried all but the highest (725m) summits and over-ran adjacent lower peaks and cols. The presence of gibbsite in soil samples from above the inferred upper limit of glacial erosion and its absence in all samples from below this limit is consistent with the geomorphological evidence and implies removal of gibbsitic soils below 725m by glacial erosion during the last glacial stage. Cosmogenic 10 Be exposure ages for rock outcrops above the inferred upper limit of glacial erosion yield pre-last glacial maximum (LGM) ages of (>) 46.9 +/- 3.0 ka to (>) 95.9 +/- 6.1 ka, whereas rock outcrops on summits over-ridden by warm-based ice give post-LGM ages of 18.2+/- 1.2 to 19.1 +/- 1.2 ka. All geomorphological and dating evidence thus indicates an LGM age for the ice dome. The thickness of the ice dome and limited lateral dispersal of erratics indicate that at the LGM the Wicklow ice was encircled by and confluent with thick, powerful ice streams moving SE from the Irish Midlands and southwards down the Irish Sea basin. This conclusion is irreconcilable with the traditional view that the last Irish ice sheet terminated at the ‘South Ireland end moraine’, but consistent with recent proposals that the last ice sheet was much more extensive than previously believed, and over-ran the south coast of Ireland.

Darvill and Wainwright Chapter

Many will be unaware that the big chapter on Neolithic and Bronze Age Pembrokeshire, written by Tim Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright, is available as a PDF here:

http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/26806/1/Darvill%20%26%20Wainwright%202016.pdf

It's Chapter 2 in the big first volume of the Pembrokeshire County History, published in 2016 with a price tag too high for most people to cope with.......  It's a very comprehensive chapter, beautifully illustrated, but already looking dated.  We may take it as the establishment view of things, while accepting that the TD/GW tribe had (in 2016) certain differences of opinion with the MPP tribe.  I did a two-part critique of the chapter here:

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2017/06/darvill-and-wainwright-on-neolithic-and.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2017/06/darvill-and-wainwright-on-neolithic-and_19.html

Skara Brae and Banc Llwydlos

I hesitate to suggest that we might have a treasure like Skara Brae up here in the uplands of north Pembrokeshire, but there are interesting similarities.  For a start, the size of the two "villages" is similar.  There are similarities in layout too, with a tight cluster of circular and rectangular dwellings and connecting passages designed for mutual protection and community living for up to ten family groups: 

Both of the sites are exposed and windswept.  At both sites, the natural or easiest building material was stone, since we assume a shortage of timber resources.  At Skara Brae using stone was certainly easier, since the stone slabs there were easy to obtain, carry and use.  Rounded erratic boulders, slabs and cobbles at Banc Llwydlos were not all that easy to use, so the "tidy architecture" of Skara Brae could not have been replicated, no matter what the age of the Banc Llwydlos settlement might be.  But at the latter site there was clay available locally -- in the till deposits around the site and in the thin lacustrine deposits in the Brynberian Moor depression just a few hundred metres away -- and this could have been used in walls for packing spaces and windproofing, as well as adding stability.  Making pottery too.....

What we don't have at Banc Llwydos are the sands and the fish.......... but probably quite abundant hunting and gathering resources in a landscape that might have looked something like this.....

"Climax" vegetation on Banc Llwydlos, within a small fenced enclosure designed to keep animals away from a spring-fed water supply point.  This is what the landscape might look like without the sheep and ponies.  Rowan, willow and blackthorn are thriving, as are heather and bilberry.  All of these are suppressed by grazing and burning for gorse clearance.

Let's assume that wattle and daub walls were used at Banc Llwydlos above the bouldery foundations.  What about roof structures?  I know that most of the reconstructions of Skara Brae assume conical and steeply-pitched roofs over the individual houses, supported by pillars and cross members.  But how well founded are those assumptions?  I remember reading many years ago that the multiple huts at sites like Foed Drygarn and Carningli probably did NOT have steeply pitched conical roofs, partly because those would have been very vulnerable in strong winds, and partly because with their large surface areas they would have been very heavy, requiring extra building skill and a lavish use of scarce resources.  It would have made more sense on those hilltop locations to build low domed roofs with pillar supports and a relatively simple structure of interwoven long timbers, with a cover of thatch or skins, or both.  I like this reconstruction of a Skara Brae house, with a very low conical or ridged roof.  Something like this would have suited very well at Banc Llwydlos...........

I'n not terribly bothered how old the Banc Llwydlos settlement turns out to be, but I am quite intrigued by the POSSIBILITY that we have a rather significant site up there on Mynydd Preseli......... 

The Banc Llwydlos settlement

 

Grid reference: SN 08957 32973.  Altitude: 275m.  Grassland sloping northwards.  The features are identified with the letters used by Peter Drewett in his original sketch plan, but three additional features are now identified.  There seem to be ten hut circles.

I managed to visit the "village site" this morning, and it's absolutely gorgeous over there.  No wonder some tribal group thought it would be a nice place to live -- well sheltered from the south and west.  There's a a gentle slope to the north, and a dry and grassy bank littered with huge erratic boulders.  It's an old moraine, with abundant large and small stones readily to hand for the building of embankments and walls and platforms.  And just a few metres away, we find a gurgling brook with plentiful water throughout the year, and incised into the moraine with very little chance of flooding over onto the settlement site.

The ford, seen from the west.  The old fence posts and fencing wires were put there to protect a water supply tank and sluice just to the left of the photo.

The steep-sided valley of the Afon Pennant, just to the north of the settlement site.

Two of the hut circles with walls c 50 cm high, and now well turfed.

Traces of terracing or platforms constructed at the outer (northern) edge of the site.

I'll repeat the Dyfed Archaeology record here, for convenience:

http://www.dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/projects/schedulepembroke2010.pdf

DYFED ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST
REPORT NO. 2009/63 PROJECT RECORD NO. 96851
Mawrth 2010 March 2010
SCHEDULING ENHANCEMENT PROJECT 2010: PREHISTORIC SITES FIELDWORK – PEMBROKESHIRE
By F. Murphy, M. Page, R. Ramsey and H. Wilson

Archwilio record:
https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archsearch/record.xhtml

Description:
PRN 14373 NAME BANC LLWYDLOS

SUMMARY A settlement complex including at least seven hut circles surrounding a square enclosure and yard, situated on the northeast facing slope of Banc Llwydlos.

LONG DESCRIPTION A settlement complex including at least seven hut circles surrounding a square enclosure and yard, situated on the northeast facing slope of Banc Llwydlos at 270m above sea level. Indentified from aerial photography in 1990, 2009 saw the first site visit and this recorded a settlement complex of possible prehistoric date. The complex includes seven hut circles that are spread around a small square shaped enclosure. The square enclosure measures approximately 6.0m E-W by 5.0m and has an entrance on the north. The entrance leads out to a small 'yard' area that has an opening on the east into a larger rectangular 'yard' area measuring 18m E-W by c.6.0m. These yards appear to have been constructed on a platform to create a level area on the sloping ground, and much of the settlement has the appearance of being somewhat terraced into the hill slope. The hut circles vary from 5.5m to 3.5m in diameter. All the features are defined by low, spread, stony earthen banks that have an average height of 0.3m and an average width of 1.3m. All the banks are grass covered and many have large stones protruding through the turf.

That's a pretty good description, and I have little add apart from saying that the small square enclosure is not necessarily the focal point of the settlement.  Because the whole site is so old, the walls are well covered with turf, and in some places it is difficult to know what is man-made and what is natural.  Only excavation will reveal the truth.  But what I quite like here is the "planning" of this communal site, with passageways and yards, and platforms or terraces as well.  It's not a defended site, and there are no traces of ditches or embankments. 

How old is the settlement?  I suppose that it might have been occupied over a long period, but the best bet might be that it originally dates from the Bronze Age or maybe earlier........  the Iron Age sites that we know about tend to be larger and heavily fortified (as at Foel Drygarn, Carn Alw and Carningli), or in places where farming could take place.  But here hunting, gathering and stock grazing were the only options.

If MPP or anybody else wants to come and do some digging in this area in the next few years, please come and do it here, so that we can start to get a handle on what was going on in the good old days when building with stone was the great thing..........

PS. Here are a couple of reconstructions of Neolithic dwellings.  There are now plenty of them in outdoor museums and heritage centres (Stonehenge is just one) across western Europe. 

At Banc Llwydlos we have bouldery terrain, and so the hut builders have naturally used boulders and cobbles to provide the foundations for the timber posts, and also extra protection /insulation in this rather windy environment.

Banc Llwydlos settlement site

As mentioned in my last post, there is something interesting at Banc Llwydlos, around grid ref SN08957 32973.  The description is found in the Dyfed Archaeology 2010 Report:

http://www.dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/projects/schedulepembroke2010.pdf

DYFED ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST
REPORT NO. 2009/63 PROJECT RECORD NO. 96851
Mawrth 2010 March 2010
SCHEDULING ENHANCEMENT PROJECT 2010: PREHISTORIC SITES FIELDWORK – PEMBROKESHIRE
By F. Murphy, M. Page, R. Ramsey and H. Wilson

and also in the 2013 Report mentioned previously.

Archwilio record:

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archsearch/record.xhtml

Description: 
PRN 14373 NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE UNENCLOSED SETTLEMENT PERIOD Prehistoric NGR SN08973303 CONDITION Damaged STATUS NPP FORM Earthwork complex

SUMMARY A settlement complex including at least seven hut circles surrounding a square enclosure and yard, situated on the northeast facing slope of Banc Llwydlos.

LONG DESCRIPTION A settlement complex including at least seven hut circles surrounding a square enclosure and yard, situated on the northeast facing slope of Banc Llwydlos at 270m above sea level. Indentified from aerial photography in 1990, 2009 saw the first site visit and this recorded a settlement complex of possible prehistoric date. The complex includes seven hut circles that are spread around a small square shaped enclosure. The square enclosure measures approximately 6.0m E-W by 5.0m and has an entrance on the north. The entrance leads out to a small 'yard' area that has an opening on the east into a larger rectangular 'yard' area measuring 18m E-W by c.6.0m. These yards appear to have been constructed on a platform to create a level area on the sloping ground, and much of the settlement has the appearance of being somewhat terraced into the hill slope. The hut circles vary from 5.5m to 3.5m in diameter. All the features are defined by low, spread, stony earthen banks that have an average height of 0.3m and an average width of 1.3m. All the banks are grass covered and many have large stones protruding through the turf.

Here is the sketch plan prepared by  Peter Drewett on one of his site visits around 1985-87.  It should be numbered 14373.

I'll update this plan soon with the benefit of modern satellite imagery.  I think this site is of great importance -- although possibly not unique, since there are also settlement traces on a similar scale around Carn Goedog,  Carn Alw and Craig Talfynydd.  Were there a number of distinct Neolithic /Bronze Age tribal territories on this north flank of Mynydd Preseli?  Time will tell.....

We know that there are cromlechs and passage graves around the place.  They are Neolithic.  Somebody built them, and they must have lived somewhere nearby.....

 

Waun Mawn and the Banc Llwydlos Tribe

The "other" standing stone at Waun Mawn -- it has nothing to do with the 

proposed "giant stone circle"

A map from the Dyfed Archaeology Report showing the locations of just 14 of the multiple prehistoric features on Banc Llwydlos and the adjacent moorland

Now here is a proposition:  it is premature, and even irresponsible, for archaeologists to talk about bluestone quarries, giant stone circles and "proto-Stonehenge in the Tafarn-y-bwlch area without first understanding the Neolithic tribe that occupied this area -- its size, its technical abilities, and its cultural associations. 

While MPP and his merry gang have been getting all excited over Waun Mawn, its fantastical "giant stone circle" and its fanciful links with Stoneghenge, I have been quietly assembling information about the extent of settlement in the neighbourhood, and the characteristics of the prehistoric remains littering the landscape.  

These are just a few of my posts on the scheduled and unscheduled features on Banc Llwydlos:

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/lake-brynberian-further-thoughts.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/devensian-till-on-brynberian-moor.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/banc-llwydlos-passage-grave.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/gallery-graves-or-passage-graves.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/more-banc-llwydlos-records.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/banc-llwydlos-cromlech-3.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/pensarn-what-will-diggers-find.html


This is the key report which gives the regional context:

www.dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/projects/schedulepembroke2011.pdf

In a number of visits culminating in a more detailed study in 2011, Dyfed Archaology team members investigated Banc Llwydlos, centred on SN09003323 – an area of c.6 square kilometres.  Sixteen sites were investigated, most of them having been previously identified by P. Drewett.  These are just some of the interesting features:

PRN 1565  TYPE UNENCLOSED SETTLEMENT   PERIOD Bronze Age?
NGR SN09303311    CONDITION Damaged   STATUS SAM-PE370   FORM Earthwork
Scheduled. FM & RR June 2009
A stone banked oval enclosure containing several possible huts with linking walls. Noted by CRM during air survey. TAJ 21:2:1990.  Nearby remains of a rectangular hut.  See below.

PRN 1579 NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE ENCLOSURE GROUP PERIOD Medieval/Post Medieval? NGR SN09073339   CONDITION Damaged STATUS FORM Earthwork
SUMMARY Circular enclosure and associated rectangular hut.

PRN 100699 TYPE HUT CIRCLE? NGR SN08703299   CONDITION Unknown
Scheduling Enhancement Project 2011: Prehistoric Fieldwork– Pembrokeshire Additional Sites
NAME  BANC LLWYDLOS    PERIOD Unknown
STATUS FORM Unknown   SUMMARY A feature identified as a 'circular stone hut’ by P Drewett during field survey in 1984.

PRN 100700  NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE CHAMBERED TOMB PERIOD Prehistoric NGR SN0875133233   CONDITION Damaged   STATUS FORM Earthwork
SUMMARY A sub-rectangular shaped arrangement of stones set on edge and protruding through a similarly shaped low earthen mound. Possible the remains of a former prehistoric 'passage grave' or 'chambered tomb', it is situated to the east of a stream on a gentle NE facing slope of Banc Llwydlos.

Plan of the Banc Llywdlos "passage grave" given the number 100700.

PRN 100701  NAME BANC LLWYDLOS   TYPE STANDING STONE   PERIOD Prehistoric   NGR SN087763323   CONDITION Damaged STATUS FORM Stone slab
SUMMARY A possible standing stone recorded by P Drewett in 1984.

PRN 100702   NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE ENCLOSURE PERIOD Prehistoric NGR SN08813321   CONDITION Damaged   STATUS FORM Stone built structure
SUMMARY  A small sub-circular enclosure situated east of a stream on a gentle NE facing slope of Banc Llwydlos at 260m above sea level, defined by a number of very large stone blocks, some of which are set within an earthen bank. (This looks suspiciously like a ruined cromlech --

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2017/04/banc-llwydlos-cromlech-3.html

PRN 100703  NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE STANDING STONE PERIOD Prehistoric NGR SN08723322   CONDITION Damaged   STATUS FORM Stone slab
FM & HW.   SUMMARY A possible 'megalith' recorded by P Drewett in 1984. It is situated to the south of the possible 'passage grave' PRN 100700.

PRN 100704   NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE CIRCULAR ENCLOSURE PERIOD Prehistoric? NGR SN08733323  CONDITION Damaged   STATUS FORM Earthwork
SUMMARY A possible small circular enclosure visible as a low earthwork.

PRN 100705 NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE SHEEP FOLD PERIOD Medieval NGR SN09513302 CONDITION Damaged   STATUS FORM Stone structure
SUMMARY A possible sheepfold situated on a northwest facing slope of Banc Llwydlos at 250m above sea level, lying to the east of a stream.

Feature No 100705.

PRN 100706   NAME CARNAU LLADRON   TYPE CIRCULAR ENCLOSURE   PERIOD Prehistoric? NGR SN10153343  CONDITION Damaged   STATUS FORM Earthwork
SUMMARY A nearly circular enclosure visible as a curving line of stones protruding through the turf. It is situated on a gentle north facing slope of Carnau Lladron at 200m above sea level.
LONG DESCRIPTION A nearly circular enclosure visible as a curving line of stones protruding through the turf. It is situated on a gentle north facing slope of Carnau Lladron at 200m above sea level. This possible enclosure has an approximate diameter of 13.6m. There is no evidence of an entrance. Within this enclosure there appears to be at least one small circular 'hut' (c.4.1m in diameter) situated towards the southern side of the enclosure. Outside of the enclosure on the west side is another small circular 'hut' (c.4.7m in diameter). As with the enclosure the huts are visible as circles of stones protruding through the turf. Not identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984.
FM & HW April 2011

PRN 100707  NAME RHOS Y BRYN   PERIOD Prehistoric?  TYPE CAIRN  NGR SN10133398 CONDITION Unknown  STATUS FORM Unknown   SUMMARY A 'cairn' identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984.
LONG DESCRIPTION A 'cairn' (site no 115) identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984.No more information is listed in Drewett's 1984 report. Not located during fieldwork in 2011. The grid reference has been estimated from the sketch map contained within the report. FM & HW April 2011

PRN 100708 NAME BANC LLWYDLOS PERIOD Prehistoric? TYPE HUT CIRCLE
NGR SN10293297 CONDITION Unknown STATUS FORM Unknown SUMMARY A 'circular stone hut' identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984.

PRN 100709  NAME  CARNAU LLADRON    PERIOD Unknown
TYPE ENCLOSURE   NGR SN10593382   CONDITION Unknown
Scheduling Enhancement Project 2011: Prehistoric Fieldwork– Pembrokeshire Additional Sites
STATUS FORM Unknown   SUMMARY An ‘enclosure’ identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984.
LONG DESCRIPTION An ‘enclosure’ (site no 114) identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984. No more information is listed in Drewett’s 1984 report. Not located during fieldwork in 2011. The grid reference has been estimated from the sketch map contained within the report. FM & HW April 2011

PRN 100710  NAME CARNAU LLADRON   PERIOD Unknown  TYPE ENCLOSURE 

NGR SN09843364   CONDITION Unknown  STATUS FORM Unknown
SUMMARY An ‘enclosure’ identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984.
LONG DESCRIPTION An ‘enclosure’ (site no 116) identified by P Drewett during field survey in 1984. No more information is listed in Drewett’s 1984 report. Not located during fieldwork in 2011. The grid reference has been estimated from the sketch map contained within the report. FM & HW April 2011

PRN 9944  CIRCULAR ENCLOSURE NEAR CARN GOEDOG

Larger enclosures visited as part of this project included earthworks as well as drystone built features. One notable example is the well-preserved circular enclosure (PRN 9944) situated on the gentle north facing slopes of Carn Goedog. This enclosure, lying within a complex of fields and features (PRN 8403), consists of a circular enclosure, c.35m in diameter, defined by an earth and stone bank c.4.0m wide and 0.6m high that forms a complete circle with no apparent entrance. In the SE quadrant of the interior is a spread of stone that appears to have some form - perhaps circular - possibly an indication of a former hut circle? Unfortunately the reed growth within the enclosure obscures any other evidence of internal features. This earthwork does not have an obvious settlement function and there are no other similar examples recorded in Pembrokeshire but neither does it fall into any known category of prehistoric funerary or ritual monument.  Recorded in Dyfed Archaeology Scheduling Enhancement Project 2010.

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2015/05/that-aint-no-pingo.html

BEDD YR AFANC - probable passage grave.  Grid ref SN107346.

Use search box for relevant posts.

Bedd yr Afanc, one of the few features in the area to have been investigated.

NOT PREVIOUSLY RECORDED.   Collapsed cromlech?  LOCATION - BANC LLWYDLOS.  PERIOD: Neolithic?  Grid reference: SN 096333. A clear circular arrangement of stones, c 6 m across. There are 23 small stones around a slight hollow, with two "stone clusters" on the southern edge. On the west side of the hollow there are two much bigger stones, one that appears to be a leaning support stone, c 70 cm high, and a fallen capstone which has the dimensions 1.3m long x 70cm wide x 30cm deep. 

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/09/more-prehistoric-features-on-banc.html

PASSAGE / GALLERY GRAVES.    Two passage graves (?) recorded by Emyr Jones and friends on social media.  Grid references SN 095338 and SN 087332. One of the features is near a prominent hawthorn tree on the moor, and the other is not far from the edge of a recently burnt area.

Banc Llwydlos passage grave SN087332 (possibly the same feature as No 100700)

Penanty-isaf passage grave 

Penanty-isaf passage grave

The relevant post is this one:

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-great-passage-grave-hunt.html

-----------------------------------------

Then we have the cluster of features on and near Waun Mawn, including at least five prominent standing stones, hut circles and ring cairns, the Waun Maes "sheepfold" and associated buildings,  stone walls, at least one ruined cromlech (?), a walled enclosure and standing stones at Carnedd Meibion Owen, and the Foel Eryr summit burial cairn.  These features have all been described on this blog -- not all of the same age, maybe, but certainly worthy of investigation.  See also:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345177590_Waun_Mawn_and_the_search_for_Proto-_Stonehenge

Features associated with the Waun Maes "sheepfold" -- prehistoric, or not?  Map by Paul Sambrook.

Part of the ruined "sheepfold" wall.

It's intriguing that the most obvious feature at Waun Maes -- the big "sheepfold" -- does not seem to have been given a catalogue number by the Dyfed Archaeology team.  This may be because it was deemed to have no archaeological significance, and to be a "modern" feature.  I disagree with this -- it looks very old to me, and does not seem to fit the requirement of being capable of containing a flock of sheep or other animals.  But it is listed by Coflein:

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/402804/details/disused-sheepfold-waun-maes-south-east-of-gellifawr
Anyway, it deserves proper archaeological investigation.........

Remains of a "long hut"at Foel Fach

Pair of standing stones, Waun Mawn

Waun Mawn -- ruined cromlech?

Waun Mawn -- traces of a hut circle?

See also:


PRN 9947 NAME WAUN MAWN   TYPE ENCLOSURE PERIOD Unknown

NGR SN081338   CONDITION Unknown   STATUS FORM Earthwork

PRN 9947   NAME WAUN MAWN   TYPE ENCLOSURE   PERIOD Unknown
NGR SN081338   CONDITION Unknown   STATUS FORM Earthwork
SUMMARY Possible enclosure located on a gentle west facing slope of Waun Mawn at 290m above sea level.
LONG DESCRIPTION Not visited in 2011 but it appears to be in the same location as the small enclosure, site No 122, recorded by P Drewett in 1984. FM May 2011
Information from D Maynard. Enclosure overlain ? by long house ? 9946 Earthwork enclosure of unknown significance. RPS August 2001

PRN 100698 NAME WAUN MAES   PERIOD Prehistoric?   TYPE CAIRN    NGR SN0724733056 CONDITION Damaged  STATUS FORM Earthwork   SUMMARY An irregular shaped earthwork, possibly a prehistoric burial cairn, situated on a gentle NE facing slope of Waun Maes at 330m above sea level.
LONG DESCRIPTION An irregular shaped earthwork, possibly a prehistoric burial cairn, situated on a gentle NE facing slope of Waun Maes at 330m above sea level. The earthwork is visible as a low earthen mound with large stones protruding through the turf. It measures approximately 11.4m N-S and 6.1m E- W and a maximum height of 0.4m. It has the appearance of an oval mound that has spread down slope to the NE. There appears to be a remnant of a stone kerb around the southern edge of the mound. This site was first recorded by P Drewett in 1984 as a ‘burial cairn’ (site no 103).

FM & HW April 2011

PRN 100699  NAME BANC LLWYDLOS  PERIOD Unknown   STATUS FORM Unknown

SUMMARY A feature identified as a 'circular stone hut’ by P Drewett during field
survey in 1984.
LONG DESCRIPTION A feature identified as a ‘circular stone hut' (site no 105) by P Drewett during field survey in 1984. There is no drawing of the feature in the report. This site was not located during a site visit in 2011. FM & HW April 2011

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And this might be the most important find of all,   a "settlement" which might well have consisted of seven dwelling huts -- that might mean seven families.  That means a hamlet or a village.......

PRN 14373 NAME BANC LLWYDLOS TYPE UNENCLOSED SETTLEMENT PERIOD Prehistoric NGR SN08973303   CONDITION Damaged   STATUS NPP     FORM Earthwork complex
SUMMARY     A settlement complex including at least seven hut circles surrounding a square enclosure and yard, situated on the northeast facing slope of Banc Llwydlos.
LONG DESCRIPTION      A settlement complex including at least seven hut circles surrounding a square enclosure and yard, situated on the northeast facing slope of Banc Llwydlos at 270m above sea level. Indentified from aerial photography in 1990, 2009 saw the first site visit and this recorded a settlement complex of possible prehistoric date. The complex includes seven hut circles that are spread around a small square shaped enclosure. The square enclosure measures approximately 6.0m E-W by 5.0m and has an entrance on the north. The entrance leads out to a small 'yard' area that has an opening on the east into a larger rectangular 'yard' area measuring 18m E-W by c.6.0m. These yards appear to have been constructed on a platform to create a level area on the sloping ground, and much of the settlement has the appearance of being somewhat terraced into the hill slope. The hut circles vary from 5.5m to 3.5m in diameter. All the features are defined by low, spread, stony earthen banks that have an average height of 0.3m and an average width of 1.3m. All the banks are grass covered and many have large stones protruding through the turf.  

350m to the east is another hut circle group PRN 1565 that has been scheduled. FM & RR June 2009
A stone banked series of features including one or more possible huts with linking walls. Noted by CRM during air survey. TAJ 21:2:1990. 

Banc Llwydlos "village" -- PRN 14373.  It's suggested that there may have been a cluster of at least seven huts here, some on and some off this satellite image.

Plan of the "village"  -- added 7 Dec 2020.

Hugh Thomas, who knows the north slope of Preseli better than anybody else, said this on the blog in May 2015:

"The whole area is crammed with settlement traces and this concerns me over when it is scheduled to be dug and by whom.  I personally feel an independent effort should be made to establish what life was like here during the so called "Bluestone transport timescale" .  It is great this area has survived in such an unspoiled way, as if this site had been on the southern slope it would have been lost under modern farming long ago. The only other site I know of like this is Craig Talfynydd, there is a mysterious ring feature there too to the north. Also, burial chambers, standing stones etc in a very puzzling site low down next to the bog at Cors Tewgyll." 

Hugh makes the point that patterns of quite dense settlement traces are found in this area, as in others (he could have added the Carningli north slope and the Carn Alw area) and that nobody really knows which of the recorded features belong to which time slices -- Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age or "early medieval".  So I agree with Hugh -- there has been no concerted effort to understand what life was like in this area in the "Bluestone transport timescale" -- ie around 5,000 years ago.  

CONCLUSION

The settlement traces here are so varied -- incorporating hut circles, cromlechs, passage graves or gallery graves, ring cairns, stone alignments, standing stones, platforms, huts and sheepfolds -- that this suggests quite complex tribal occupation and activity.  Not very sophisticated maybe, but showing a wide variety of utilitarian and "ritual" features.  We may even have traces of a possible "tribal village",  and it's extraordinary that MPP and his fellow diggers have homed in on an insignificant alignment of one standing stone and three recumbent stones whilst completely ignoring the rich and varied context in which it is set.  The Stonehenge obsession is apparently so strong that the real cultural context of Waun Mawn has no value at all...........  and I wonder what the Dyfed Archaeological Trust feels about this "cultural appropriation" of one minute part of this fascinating cultural landscape, and the ignoring of everything else, arising out of what can only be described as bluestone mania?

Columnar jointing in dolerite, Garn Fawr, Mynydd Dinas

The location of the columnar jointed "plug" on the lower Garn Fawr tor.

Polygonal jointing revealed on an ice-smoothed surface towards the base of the exposures.

On the western extension of the Garn Fawr tor, on Mynydd Dinas, I spotted something I have missed on all my previous visits -- a large "plug" of dolerite with columnar jointing, standing quite prominently above the surrounding dolerite which has much more widely spaced jointing.  The plug is approx 10m x 10m in extent, and we can see a total depth of almost 30m down to the grassy slope at the base of the tor.  the columns are tightly-packed an somewhat irregular, with a dip towards the SE.   The polygonal jointing pattern is assisting in the breakdown of the plug, which must at one time have been much more prominent.  Around and below the plug there is a litter of small broken blocks, giving the appearance of scree -- this is very different to the character of the slopes around the rest of the tor.  On the lower slope there are various ice-smoothed surfaces which are perpendicular to the dip direction of the columns, thus displaying the polygonal jointing perfectly.

This phenomenon is relatively rare in the Preseli uplands.  Parker Pearson has claimed that there is columnar jointing on Carn Goedog, and Darvill and Wainwright have claimed that it exists on Carn Meini as well.  But I disagree with all of them; on those tors there are certainly occasional elongated "pillars" created by the existence of parallel joints, but they are random rather than organized in the manner of the Garn Fawr plug. They do not have true polygonal cross-sections like those illustrated below.

The broken surface at the top of the plug.  The terminated columns of dolerite are 

dipping towards the SE.

Columns exposed at the base of the cliff.

Here the joints are being forced apart, leading to the eventual collapse of column fragments

onto the slope beneath.

Waun Maes sheepfold -- or is it?

The north-western segment of the "sheepfold" wall -- very ruinous and very old, and heavily colonised by lichens.

Paul Sambrook's map showing the ruinous enclosure and the other enigmatic features in the neighbourhood.

This strange feature was referred to in an earlier post, and today I had a chance to visit it by splashing across a very soggy bog from a parking layby on the main road.  It's actually located on a stony and grassy rise extending northwards from the slopes of Foel Fach, so it's in a well-drained and relatively friendly environment, with the headwaters of the Gwaun river just a few yards away.  There is plenty of good grazing land both to north and south of the "sheepfold."

The small rectangular enclosure inside the western part of the periphery wall.

The southern part of the perimeter, showing the very large boulders used, and its ruinous state.

The enclosure is very large, about 40m north-south, and over 50m west-east.  It has one rectangular feature inside the western wall and another smaller rectangular feature near the angle in the eastern wall; might these have been shepherd's shelters?    There are a couple of quite narrow gaps in the walls -- but were they ever big enough to have been used in connection with the herding and containing of sheep or other animals?  For the most part very substantial boulders have been used -- some of them are over a metre long, and moving them must not have been an easy task.  I have some doubts that these walls ever were high enough and tidy enough to have held sheep -- for that you need a vertical wall almost 2m high.

Within 100m of the enclosure there are a number of "platforms", mounds and signs of stone arrangements, and the most prominent is a a ruinous "long hut" which must have been rectangular and which is now largely covered with turf. Shepherd's hut, or something else?

The remains of the "long hut" near the eastern bank of the river.

I'm mystified by these features. Could they be prehistoric, and connected in some way with the features on Waun Mawn (which is after all geographically very close by) and on Banc Llwydlos and Brynberian Moor?  Might they have had something to do with the medieval deer park?  Or do they date from the modern era of sheep farming on these wild and forbidding moorlands?