V.—Two Bronze Age Cairns in South Wales: Simondston and Pond Cairns, Coity Higher Parish, Bridgend

Archaeologia ◽  
1938 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 129-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Fox

In the angle between the rivers Ogwr and Ewenny on the northern margin of the Vale of Glamorgan, east of the town of Bridgend, Brackla Hill (287 ft.) is the outstanding feature. Its pastoral slopes are linked to higher ground on the north by a saddle, on the east side of which there is a gentle fall to a tributary of the Ewenny, and on the west to a rivulet which flows into the Ogwr. Coity village lies at the point where the saddle merges into the upland.

Archaeologia ◽  
1910 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Wyman Abbott ◽  
Reginald A. Smith

The series of relics exhibited to the Society come from an early settlement at Peterborough, dating from a time when flint was in general use, perhaps before the introduction of metal, at least among the poorer inhabitants of the country. The site is a promontory rising out of the Fens and lying on the north-east side of the town. The river Nene joined the Fens about half a mile to the south-west of the site, which is only a few feet above sea-level, and was almost surrounded in times of flood. So far as can be determined at present, the extent of the settlement is several acres, but the ground has not yet been moved except on the west side, where unfortunately no observations were taken. There were no surface indications of human habitation, and no burrows noticed on the promontory or in its neighbourhood. The subsoil is gravel, fine and coarse, varying in depth from 8 to 10 feet. The top 18 inches of gravel, underlying the soil, is reddish brown, mixed with a reddish loam, which sometimes occupies natural pockets 3 to 8 feet deep, cutting down through the gravel and at times reaching the cornbrash below.


1979 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Jenkins

In the seventeenth century, one of the Catholic strongholds of Britain had lain on the southern Welsh borders, in those areas of north Monmouthshire and southern Herefordshire dependant on the Marquis of Worcester at Raglan, and looking to the Jesuit mission at Cwm. Abergavenny and Monmouth had been largely Catholic towns, while the north Monmouthshire countryside still merited the attention of fifteen priests in the 1670s—after the Civil Wars, and the damaging conversion to Protestantism of the heir of Raglan in 1667. Conspicuous Catholic strength caused fear, and the ‘Popish Plot’ was the excuse for a uniquely violent reaction, in which the Jesuit mission was all but destroyed. What happened after that is less clear. In 1780, Berington wrote that ‘In many [counties], particularly in the west, in south Wales, and some of the Midland counties, there is scarcely a Catholic to be found’. Modern histories tend to reflect this, perhaps because of available evidence. The archives of the Western Vicariate were destroyed in a riot in Bath in 1780, and a recent work like J. H. Aveling's The Handle and the Axe relies heavily on sources and examples from the north of England. This attitude is epitomised by Bossy's remark on the distribution of priests in 1773: ‘In Wales, the mission had collapsed’. However, the question of Catholic survival in eighteenth-century Wales is important. In earlier assessments of Catholic strength (by landholding, or number of recusants gaoled as a proportion of population) Monmouthshire had achieved the rare feat of exceeding the zeal of Lancashire, and Herefordshire was not far behind. If this simply ceased to exist, there was an almost incredible success for the ‘short, sharp’ persecution under Charles II. If, however, the area remained a Catholic fortress, then recent historians of recusancy have unjustifiably neglected it.


1963 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 99-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Wainwright

The distribution of Mesolithic sites in Wales is controlled to a great extent by the terrain, for physiographically, Wales is a highland block defined on three sides by the sea and for the greater part of the fourth side by a sharp break of slope. Geologically the Principality is composed almost entirely of Palaeozoic rocks, of which the 600-foot contour encloses more than three quarters of the total area. There are extensive regions above 1,500 feet and 2,000 feet and in the north the peaks of Snowdonia and Cader Idris rise to 3,560 feet and 2,929 feet respectively. Indeed North Wales consists of an inhospitable highland massif, skirted by a lowland plateau and cut deeply by river valleys, providing only limited areas for settlement. The hills and mountains of Snowdonia with their extension at lower altitudes into the Lleyn Peninsula, and the ranges of Moelwyn, Manod Mawr, Arenig Fach and Cader Idris, are discouraging obstacles to penetration, save for a short distance along the river valleys. To the east of these peaks are extensive tracts of upland plateau dissected by rivers, bounded on the west by the vale of the river Conway and cleft by the Vale of Clwyd. To the east of this valley lies the Clwydian Range and further again to the east these uplands descend with milder contours to the Cheshire and Shropshire plains.To the south the district merges into the uplands of Central Wales, which are continuous until they are replaced by the lowland belt of South Wales.


1936 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
F. Cottrill

Excavations made in June 1935 for the foundations of a new sub-station of the London Passenger Transport Board at Trinity Place, Trinity Square, E.C., brought to light some remains of the Roman town wall of London. A large portion of the medieval superstructure is still standing on the east side of Trinity Place, and to the north of this the Inner Circle Railway runs in a cutting under the roadway. The construction of this cutting involved the removal of a length of 73 ft. of the wall in 1882 (R.C.H.M. Roman London, 83). The site of the discoveries to be described here was immediately behind the southern retaining wall of the cutting. Both faces of the Roman wall were exposed at this point, and could be examined in detail, and against the external face was a fragment of one of the later Roman bastions (pl. 1). These remains were investigated by the writer on behalf of this Society, and the Passenger Transport Board kindly granted all necessary facilities, and rendered every possible assistance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Fabio Silva

This paper applies a combined landscape and skyscape archaeology methodology to the study of megalithic passage graves in the North-west of the Iberian Peninsula, in an attempt to glimpse the cosmology of these Neolithic Iberians. The reconstructed narrative is found to be supported also by a toponym for a local mountain range and associated folklore, providing an interesting methodology that might be applied in future Celtic studies. The paper uses this data to comment on the ‘Celticization from the West’ hypothesis that posits Celticism originated in the European Atlantic façade during the Bronze Age. If this is the case, then the Megalithic phenomenon that was widespread along the Atlantic façade would have immediately preceded the first Celts.


Author(s):  
David A. Hinton

If gold and silver are a measure of wealth, late Roman Britain was very rich. Hoards of coins, jewellery, and plate buried in the late fourth and early fifth centuries show that their owners’ lifestyle was coming to an end as central imperial authority broke down, troops were withdrawn from the island, villas fell into disuse, and towns lost their markets and trade. Raiders threatened by land and sea: Irish from the west, Pictish from the north, Frisian, Saxon, and others from the east; and as civic order broke down, the likelihood of robbery by people living south of Hadrian’s Wall grew worse. The hoards’ owners were right to worry, and their subsequent failure to retrieve their valuables must testify to many personal catastrophes. Hoards containing dishes, bowls, and spoons as well as coins and jewellery have been found on the east side of Roman Britain from Canterbury, Kent, in the south to Whorlton, Yorkshire, in the north. Further west, coin-hoards are quite plentiful, although none has any plate. Some contain jewellery, like one found in 1843 at Amesbury, Wiltshire, that included three silver finger-rings; in the same area, another hoard with eight gold coins and one of silver was found in 1990, apparently concealed in a pot around the year 405, to judge from the date of the latest coin. But as with plate so with jewellery, the contrast with the east is still considerable; Thetford, Norfolk, has gold finger-rings as well as ornamental chains, bracelets, and a buckle; Hoxne, Suffolk, has gold bracelets, and again chains, these with elaborate mounts. Some of the craftsmanship shown in these pieces is of a high order, that only well-off patrons could have afforded. The plate suggests displays of tableware by a society that set great store on being able to offer lavish feasts and entertainment. These late Roman treasures may be giving a slightly false impression of Britain’s prosperity. Silver was probably extracted from the same native deposits that yielded lead, so would have been more available than in most parts of the Empire. Some may also have entered Britain from Ireland, where evidence of Roman intervention is accumulating.


1907 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 537-538
Author(s):  
T. C. Cantrill

The fossils which Mr. V. M. Turnbull has collected from supposed Slade Beds on the “roadside near St. Martin's Cemetery, Haverfordwest,” were obtained along the north side of a road leading westward from St. Martin'ls Cemetery to Portfield House, on the west aide of the town. About half-way between the Cemetery and Port-field House the road is crossed by a by-road known as Jury Lane; one of the fossiliferous localities lies 110 yards east of Jury Lane crossing, another is 100 to 150 yards west of it. The area in question is contained in the Old Series one-inch Geological Survey map, Sheet 40, the New Series one-inch map, Sheet 228, and in the six-inch map, Pembrokeshire, Sheet 27 N.E.


1967 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 353-371
Author(s):  
J. J. Coulton

About 10 metres south-west of the sixth-century temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora, and nearly due west of the little harbour lies the small courtyard previously known as the ‘Agora’. Since its purpose is not known, it will here be non-committally referred to as the West Court. It was first excavated in 1932, and more fully, under the supervision of J. K. Brock, in 1933, but it was not entirely cleared until 1939, and it was at that time that the Roman house which stood in the middle of the court was demolished. The West Court is discussed briefly (under the name of ‘Agora’) in Perachora 1 and in the preliminary reports of the Perachora excavations. Short supplementary excavations were carried out in 1964 and 1966 to examine certain points of the structure.In shape the West Court is an irregular pentagon, about 24 metres from north to south and the same from east to west (Fig. 1; Plate 91 a, b). It is enclosed on the west, north, and on part, at least, of the east side by a wall of orthostates on an ashlar foundation. For a short distance on either side of the south corner, the court is bounded by a vertically dressed rock face which is extended to the north-east and west by walls of polygonal masonry. At the south-west corner the west orthostate wall butts against the polygonal wall, which continues for about 0·80 m. beyond it and then returns north for about 8 metres behind it.


1853 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-217
Author(s):  
James D. Forbes

The following remarks, being the result of a careful examination of a small district of country characteristic of the relations of the trap formations, are perhaps worthy of being recorded; although the general features of the county of Roxburgh have been very clearly stated in a paper by Mr Milne, published in the 15th volume of the Edinburgh Transactions.The outburst of porphyritic trap forming the conspicuous small group of the Eildon Hills, may be stated to be surrounded by the characteristic greywacke of the south of Scotland. It forms an elongated patch on the map, extending from the west end of Bowden Muir in the direction of the town of Selkirk, and running from west-south-west to east-north-east (true) towards Bemerside Hill, on the north bank of the Tweed. The breadth is variable, probably less than is generally supposed; but it cannot be accurately ascertained, owing to the accumulated diluvium which covers the whole south-eastern slope of this elevated ridge. On this account, my observations on the contact of rocks have been almost entirely confined to the northern and western boundaries of the trap, although the other side was examined with equal care.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Darvill ◽  
Friedrich Lüth ◽  
Knut Rassmann ◽  
Andreas Fischer ◽  
Kay Winkelmann

An extensive high-resolution geophysical survey covering 2 km2was undertaken to the north of Stonehenge in June and October 2011. The survey is important in providing, for the first time, abundant detail on the form and structure of the Stonehenge Cursus, including the recognition of entrances in both of the long sides. Much additional information about the internal form of round barrows in the Cursus Round Barrow Cemetery, the course of the Avenue, the course of the so-called Gate Ditch, and numerous tracks and early roads crossing the landscape was recorded. A series of previously unrecognized features were identified: a pit-arc or cove below a barrow on the west side of King Barrow Ridge, a square-shaped feature surrounded by pits on the east side of Stonehenge Bottom, and a linear ditch on the same solstical axis, and parallel to, the southern section of the Stonehenge Avenue. An extensive scatter of small metallic anomalies marking the position of camping grounds associated with the Stonehenge Free Festival in the late 1970s and early 1980s raise interesting conservation and management issues.


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