A new chronology for the Welsh hillfort of Dinas Powys (original) (raw)
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Dinas Powys in Context: Settlement and Society in Post-Roman Wales
Dinas Powys is Wales’ best preserved example of a post-Roman secular settlement, but until recently the site’s significance has been understated due to the misdating of its defences. Re-evaluation of the finds assemblage and site stratigraphy combined with radiocarbon dating demonstrates that Dinas Powys was a multivallate promontory fort occupied between the late-fifth and seventh centuries AD. In this paper Dinas Powys is reinterpreted as the seat of a dynasty of ‘petty kings’ who controlled a small kingdom centered upon the eastern Vale of Glamorgan and the Cardiff basin. By exploring Dinas Powys within its local and regional contexts we are able to not only enhance our understanding of this and other post-Roman settlements in Wales, but also contribute to our broader understanding of society and culture in post-Roman western Britain.
Archaeology in Wales, 2013, 52, 140-141
Dinas Powys hillfort (ST1483072245) is the richest, best preserved, and most fully excavated early medieval secular settlement in Wales. The 'inland promontory fort' lies on the northern tip of a carboniferous limestone 'whale-back ridge' between the valley of the river Cadoxton and a narrow gorge known as the Cwm George in the eastern Vale of Glamorgan, 5km west of Cardiff (see ). The site was extensively excavated in the late 1950s by Lesley Alcock who recovered a substantial assemblage of material culture including metalworking debris, large quantities of animal bone, fine metalwork including pieces of British/Irish and Anglo-Saxon manufacture, worked bone/antler, iron tools including knives and punches, and an important assemblage of pottery and glass vessels imported from Gaul and the eastern Mediterranean between the late-fifth and seventh centuries AD (Alcock 1963). The subsequent publication became a seminal work of early medieval archaeology and Dinas Powys is often quoted as the classic type site of early medieval western Britain. There have been considerable developments within the field of early medieval archaeology in the 55 years since Dinas Powys was excavated, but the site remains unmatched in Wales and offers unique insights into the socio-political and economic conditions of early medieval western Britain. Nevertheless, major re-examination of the Dinas Powys finds assemblage and chronology , as well as a fuller understanding of the socio-political geography of early medieval south-east Wales arising from analysis of the Llandaff Charters (Davies 1978) and excavations at Llandough , has the potential to significantly transform our understanding of the site and its historic context (Seaman In Press). The 'Dinas Powys Revisited' project aims therefore to revisit Alcock's findings in the light of these developments and refine the context and chronology of the construction, occupation and abandonment of Dinas Powys.
Early medieval Wales: a framework for archaeological research
Archaeology, 2005
The aim of this paper is to provide an archaeological research framework for the early medieval period in Wales, which we would expect to be refined in the light of new work and fresh debates. The process for the archaeology of Wales as a whole was initiated in a conference held by IFA Wales/Cymru in 2001 (Briggs 2003), though this failed to include a paper on the early middle ages, the only period of Welsh archaeology not to be represented. Following this conference the four Welsh Archaeological Trusts were funded by Cadw to compile regional resource audits and from the data identified a research assessment was initiated. In autumn 2002 four regional seminars were held at which papers on the early medieval period were included (Bapty 2003; Edwards 2003; Lane 2003; Redknap 2003). These were followed up in May 2003 with a seminar hosted by the Early Medieval Wales Archaeology Research Group in association with the National Museum & Gallery Cardiff; the fruits of this discussion have been incorporated into this pan-Wales paper. A short paper (Bapty 2004) was included in a national seminar in September 2004 on the development of a research agenda and a research strategy for all periods of Welsh archaeology. However, it was thought that the problems of identifying the archaeology of the early medieval period in Wales and a research strategy for their possible solution merited more extensive consideration. SETTLEMENT ARCHAEOLOGY The settlement evidence for the early medieval centuries is poor throughout most of western and northern Britain. A few areas, in particular those with alkaline sand deposits such as the Hebrides or Orkney, have exceptional preservation but otherwise settlements, houses and artefacts are difficult to recognise and poorly understood. These problems affect substantial parts of upland England as well. After the relative
CIFA Wales/Cymru, 2023
Early medieval archaeology in Wales is particularly challenging. There is little diagnostic material culture and comparatively few sites have been identified and excavated. Nevertheless, the period since the last review has witnessed significant advances and knowledge. The publication of Professor Nancy Edwards' monograph on Life in Early Medieval Wales (2023, Oxford University Press) heralds a major watershed, to which readers are referred for a comprehensive and detailed overview of the current state of knowledge. This revision of the Research Framework offers an opportunity to re-evaluate its content, structure and scope. The fundamental issues that were set out in the three earlier versions of this Research Framework are still relevant. Thus, key research priorities remain: the identification and investigation of settlements, cemeteries, and ecclesiastical sites; improvement of chronological frameworks; analysis of artefacts, ecofacts, paleoenvironmental and osteological data; the further of understanding of power and authority; and also of the development of understanding of frontiers and dyke systems. The failure to significantly address and move on from these priorities demonstrates the severity of the challenges to the realisation of research potential for the early medieval period in Wales. In the light of this and the fact that Professor Edwards' monograph offers an up-to-date synthesis of the archaeology of the period, this revision of the Framework aims to set priorities that will facilitate and maximise opportunities for research, funding, and collaboration. This document considers nine overarching themes: working better together; maximising fieldwork potential; improving resources; sharing knowledge; improving and refining chronology; landscape perspectives on sites, monuments, social and economic processes; artefact and ecofact/biofact analysis; burials; power and authority; and community and engagement. Recent publications (post 2016) are noted in a separate bibliography.
Excavations of the Ty’n-y-Coed earthworks 2011-14: the Dinas Powys ‘Southern Banks
Archaeologia Cambrensis , 2019
The Ty’n-y-Coed earthworks are better known to archaeologists and historians as the Southern Banks at Dinas Powys. These were briefly investigated by Geoff Wainwright in the late 1950s as part of Leslie Alcock’s exploration of the promontory fort known as Dinas Powys. The Southern Banks were central to Alcock’s interpretation of the main defences of the promontory as being a Norman period ringwork built by a native Welsh prince. This interpretation has been shown to be incorrect and the nature of the Southern Banks has become a significant issue for the understanding of Dinas Powys. As part of a reassessment of the Dinas Powys complex excavation and survey were undertaken on the Southern Banks, now named by Cadw and the RCAHMW as the Ty’n-y-Coed earthworks, between 2011 and 2014. Ty’n-y-Coed consists of two separate bank and ditch earthworks (Bank A and Bank B), which appear to be incomplete. The earthworks lie 140m south of the important early medieval promontory fort known as Dinas Powys and were previously trial trenched in the late 1950s. Limited evidence was recovered in the new excavations, but the fieldwork has added significantly to our understanding of the date and function of the earthworks, and their relationship with the adjacent promontory fort. Bank B is interpreted as a univallate L-shaped settlement enclosure occupied during the Late Iron Age and potentially into the early Romano-British period. Sherds of an almost complete Glastonbury Ware bowl were recovered from the primary fill of the ditch, and are likely to represent the deliberate deposition of a significant vessel. The evidence for the date and function of Bank A is considerably weaker, and interpretation more ambiguous. It is suggested that part of the monument appears to be early medieval in date and is tentatively interpreted as an unfinished settlement enclosure.
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2010
The henge monument and round barrow at Dyffryn Lane, near Welshpool, Powys, represent a rare instance of earthwork survival amongst the Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments of the upper Severn Valley. Antiquarian excavation in response to agricultural degradation suggested that the monument represented a round barrow covering a stone circle. Whether these stones represented a stone circlesensu strictoor a stone kerb for a turf barrow, was not determined at the time. Aerial photography subsequently demonstrated that the barrow as surrounded by a single-entranced henge monument. The present excavation was designed to assess the degree of plough damage to the site, determine the nature of the circular arrangement of stones, investigate the development of the site, and retrieve absolute dating and palaeoenvironmental material for the various phases encountered. Excavation has demonstrated that the site saw the ritual deposition of Impressed Ware pottery prior to a stone circle being erect...
Dinas Mawddwy - Brithdir, an archaeological survey
The Dinas Mawddwy – Brithdir archaeological survey was undertaken in 2012 and was grant-aided by the RCAHM Wales Uplands Archaeology Initiative. It covers 31 square kilometres of enclosed moorland in Snowdonia National Park, in which 555 archaeological sites were recorded, 20 of which had been recorded previously in the National Monuments Record. The earliest sites to be discovered were Bronze Age cairns overlooking the Wnion valley, close to which are three circular enclosures of uncertain date, but probably prehistoric. Well-preserved tracks across moorland were once interpreted as Roman roads leading from the nearby fort at Brithdir, but only one section of track can be shown to be medieval or earlier. Other suggested Roman routes are now modern roads and no Roman features are visible. Evidence of medieval and post-medieval settlement, in the form of building platforms and stone long huts, was found in several of the lower-lying areas, including close to the pass of Bwlch Oerddrws. In some cases these former upland dwellings are demonstrably the hafotai of lowland farms; in others the proximity of old field boundaries suggests that they were permanent farmsteads. Peat was the main domestic fuel in Merioneth as late as the twentieth century and evidence of peat cutting was found concentrated in several areas. A distinguishing feature of the peat cuttings here is the proliferation of peat-drying stands, which are found in the form of sub-rectangular outlines of stones or rubble-stone platforms, often on sloping ground. They constitute one of the densest concentrations of such unusual features so far identified in Wales. A scatter of ironstone workings on Tyllau Mwn, on the southern flank of Aran Fawddwy, comprises a rare example of surviving eighteenth-century ironstone mines in Wales. They were begun in 1770. A small unsuccessful mid-nineteenth century gold mine known as Red Dragon is well preserved in the upper reaches of Nant Maesglase. Extensive remains of four slate quarries are within the survey area, which constitute an important group of quarries for slabs rather than roof slates. They were worked mainly from the 1840s to the 1920s. All are characterised by deep quarry pits, underground workings, and the survival of mills and other ancillary buildings. Inclined planes and tramways were used extensively, much evidence for which has survived. There has been little impact on the upland landscape in the twentieth century. At Bwlch Oerddrws anti-invasion defences were constructed in the 1940s in the form of large stone anti-tank blocks which form a striking addition to one of the highest passes in Wales. The report concludes with recommendations for future recording and research.