Excavations at Stackpole Warren, Dyfed

Abstract

Excavations of sites spanning the Beaker to early Roman periods at Stackpole Warren, Dyfed, are described. The sites are in an area of blown sand which enhanced their preservation and led to the separation of several horizons. The earliest is a buried soil beneath the blown sand which contained Mesolithic to Bronze Age artefacts. At site A, there was a roundhouse associated with Early Bronze Age pottery and dated to 1620±70 and 1400±70 BC uncal., and two other roundhouses, one possibly of Beaker age. After a period of soil formation, a ritual complex of Later Bronze Age date was established, this contemporary with the earliest besanding of the area; it included a stone setting of more than 2000 small stones, an alignment of small water-worn stones and a standing stone. A cremation gave a latest date of 940±70 BC uncal. Other Later Bronze Age activity is recorded at site G/J in the form of a rectangular enclosure, possibly unfinished.Late Iron Age to early Romano-British settlement was present at sites A and B, consisting of scatters of occupation debris, burnt mounds, cooking pits, hearths and houses, some of stone, some of timber, all taking place in an area being intermittently besanded.Peripheral to the religious and domestic sites, a field system was excavated. The earliest phase was a linear earthwork from which a C14 date of 400±70 BC uncal. was obtained from charcoal in the ditch. After the decay of this, rectangular fields with stone walls were laid out, one along the line of the erstwhile earthwork, this taking place around the end of the Iron Age as dated by C14 of charcoal directly beneath a wall to 90±70 BC uncal. Some of the fields had been cultivated by a succession of cross- and one-way-ploughing, others used for cattle.An assemblage of 763 flints included a few Mesolithic artefacts but was mostly of Late Neolithic and Bronze Age date. A succession of ceramic assemblages included a small Middle Neolithic group (4 vessels), two distinct Beaker groups, one early (Lanting and van der Waals steps 1–3 (8 vessels), one late (steps 3–6) (45 vessels), an Early Bronze Age group of collared urns (43 vessels) and a Later Bronze Age group (26 vessels).Environmental data was not prolific but there was a small quantity of animal bone, mostly cattle and sheep, and cereal grain, mostly barley with some wheat. Marine molluscs were present but sparsely utilized and there was no other indication of the exploitation of the coastal resources such as seals, birds, fish andiseaweed. Land Mollusca indicated open country from the Iron Age onwards when the record begins.The importance of the site is in the ritual complex from site A, the succession of Iron Age/Romano-British occupation horizons, the succession of ceramic assemblages, the field system and the fact that blown sand horizons have allowed the preservation and separation of the sequence much of which would have been at best conflated in to a single horizon or at worst destroyed. Otherwise, there is no evidence that the site was in any way special with regard to the relationship of human activity and sand deposition until the Middle Ages when the area was used as a rabbit warren. Nor was the coastal location important, at least as could be determined by the results. This was a representative of a succession of later prehistoric farming communities and their various domestic, ritual and sepulchral activities in lowland Dyfed.

Betylmania? – Small Standing Stones and the Megaliths ofSouth‐WestBritain

“…The majority were wedge‐shaped, with the point forming the base, and all were originally thought to have been set upright in a series of irregular rows running parallel to the long axis of the spread (Benson et al . , 190). The suggestion is of careful selection, movement and placement; over 2000 discrete and meaningful material acts.…”

“…No detail is given as to how exactly this was effected – the published sections give no indication of any cuts or sockets associated with the stones so the assumption must be that they were pushed sharp end first into the ground surface; the same applies to the alignment of rounded stones (Benson et al . , fig. 8).…”

A Petrographic Investigation of a Corpus of Bronze Age Cinerary Urns from the Isle of Anglesey

“…In central Wales a further group of mafic igneous tempered fabrics of Bronze Age date has been described from ring ditches at Four Crosses, Llandysilio (Darvill, 1986), from the round barrows of Trelystan due east of Welshpool (Darvill, 1982) and, more recently, from a domestic round-house at Glanfeinion south west of Llandinam (Britnell et al 1997), all in Powys. In south Wales, further examples come from Pembrokeshire -first, in pottery from a settlement site at Stackpole Warren (Benson et al 1990) and second in an urn from a barrow at Goodwin's Row, Glandy Cross (Darvill 1996).…”

Beakers: Deconstruction and After

“…(Figs 2 and 3 mainly map sites mentioned in the text and are not intended to illustrate these groups' full geographical extent. Beakers and sherds on figs 5-7, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Steps 5, 6, 7 radiocarbon-dated contexts and from the British Museum programme).…”

“…Cleal ibid., 183) and Mount Pleasant timber structure and earthwork enclosures, Dorset (Longworth in Wainwright J 979> 75> 82) could be at least as early, if not in each case intrusive. Sherds involved at Maiden Castle are style 1, which raises the possibility that coastal assemblages somewhat similar to those of Group C to the north but since destroyed in coastal erosion were basic to Group D. Launceston Down B n , Dorset (Piggott 1944, 56) Benson et al 1990) or that those in Group B assemblages should have a certain style 2 aspect (e.g. grave 11, Cassington cemetery, Oxon; Leeds 1934).…”