C O N F E R E N C E
Cambrian Archaeological Association in collaboration with Cardiff University
DARGANFOD – DISCOVERY 2025
A celebration of new archaeological research in Wales
Saturday 8th March 2025
To be held online (Zoom)
Join us for a day dedicated to fascinating recent work on the archaeology of Wales and the Marches! This online conference is the third in our series of biennial conferences which showcases work by winners of Cambrian Archaeological Association’s Dissertation (Gwobr Archaeoleg) prize as well as work supported by the CAA Research Fund. The event features presentations by early career researchers and some established researchers too.
The day will consist of a series of short presentations, with speakers available afterwards for question and answer sessions. The event is free, but advance registration on Eventbrite will be required:
Please register by Thursday 6th March
Any enquiries should be sent to Elizabeth Walker at Elizabeth.Walker@museumwales.ac.uk
Timetable (for abstracts of talks see below)
9.00 Welcome words – Gwilym Hughes, President CAA
9.05 Session 1: Medieval and Post-Medieval
Chair: tbc
9.05 Paul Davis – Houses in the Hills: dendrochronology and the farmhouses of upland Gwent
9.30 Rachel Morgan-James – Insights into the Roman and Medieval Findings at Five Mile Lane, Barry
9.55 Katie Faillace – Dietary Diversity in Medieval Wales: a high-resolution case study from Five Mile Lane, Barry
10.20 Hannah Lycett-Smith – Chewing on the Past: what can dental microwear and calculus tell us about life in Early Medieval Llandough
10.45 Session 1 discussion
10.55 Coffee break
11.05 Session 2: Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British
Chair: tbc
11.05 Caroline Pudney – A Roman Villa in Northeast Wales: discovery and implications
11.30 Sheridan Clements – Prehistoric Pasts and the Iron Age Hillforts of Northwestern Wales: the choice of location and the incorporation of ancient monuments
11.55 Oliver Davis and Niall Sharples with Scott Bees – Finding the Middle Bronze Age in unexpected places: Trelai Park, Cardiff
12.20 Anna-Elyse Young – Lithics in West Cardiff: examining the struck flint assemblages from excavations at Caerau Hillfort and Trelai Park
12.45 Session 2 discussion
12.55 Lunch break
1.45 Session 3: Bronze Age and Neolithic
Chair: tbc
1.45 Karen Lowery – Stones, Bones, Urns, Charcoal, Flint and Quartz: community excavation of a new complex/multiphase ring cairn in NE Wales
2.10 Kate Churchill – The Prehistoric World of the Buckholt
2.35 Becky Vickers – Working Stone and Making Places in Neolithic Wales
3.00 Session 3 discussion
3.10 Coffee break
3.20 Session 4: Neolithic and Mesolithic
Chair: tbc
3.20 Bill Powell – Trying to Make Sense of why some Coastal Mesolithic and Early Neolithic People chose Movement into the (Neglected) Landscape of Inland Pembrokeshire
3.45 Cat Rees – “Little men, who had been burnt, and their heads deposited in pots”: Using Welsh Myths, Traditions and Folklore to Enhance Interpretation of Pre-Roman Mortuary Sites
4.10 Session 4 discussion
4.20 Concluding remarks: Sian Rees, Chairman of CAA Board of Trustees
4.30 Close
Abstracts of Talks
GWOBR ARCHAEOLEG CAMBRIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AWARD SPEAKERS
Hannah Lycett-Smith, Archaeology Wales, formerly Cardiff University – Chewing on the Past: what can dental microwear and calculus tell us about life in Early Medieval Llandough
Although often applied in British palaeontology and zooarchaeology, dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) is an underutilised tool in British human osteoarchaeology. Additionally, calculus microdebris analysis (CMA) is a developing field, which is beginning to be applied to British remains. Neither DMTA or CMA, prior to this study, have yet been used collaboratively against one another; and neither analysis method had yet been used on Welsh remains.
During this project, dental microwear analysis followed existing methodologies, whilst a new methodology was established for CMA based on previous publications. These methods were applied to a sample of human teeth (n=31) from the Llandough collection at Amgueddfa Cymru. DMTA was carried out on second molars (n=24), preferably right mandibular but other M2s were used where this tooth was unavailable. CMA was carried out on teeth where moderate or abundant calculus was present (n=28).
Microdebris found within calculus includes fabric fibres, highlighting the prominence of wool spinning among women, and the importance of similar ‘cottage industry’ practices to the rural economies of medieval Glamorgan. Further, microcharcoal and soot suggests a prominence of fire-based trades such as smithing, while cooked food residues show consumption of leafy vegetables such as cabbage and leek.
DMTA revealed evidence for softer, potentially medicinal diets for chronically ill individuals; and raises questions of palliative care. DMTA also suggests a sex-based dietary discrepancy, with women on average having harder and more brittle diets – perhaps due to the prevalence of monks within males who would have had richer and more homogenised diets.
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Sheridan Clements, PhD researcher, Cardiff University – Prehistoric Pasts and the Iron Age Hillforts of Northwestern Wales: the choice of location and the incorporation of ancient monuments
Plan of Braich y Dinas hillfort with cairns (red), approximate line of Hughes’s (1923, fig. 2) section B, and the approximate path of the trackway through the fort (brown) (adapted from RCAHMW 1956, fig. 85 and Waddington 2013, fig. 6.1)
[Abstract to follow]
CAMBRIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION RESEARCH FUND SPEAKERS
Paul Davis – Houses in the Hills: dendrochronology and the farmhouses of upland Gwent
The Cambrian Archaeological Association’s grant was used to enable a selection of houses in upland Monmouthshire to be sampled by the process of dendrochronology, so that hitherto estimated construction dates can be confirmed by scientific methods, rather than estimates based on comparable analysis. Despite some initial caution on the part of Dr Dan Miles of Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory, the results have been, overall, very successful, and turned out to be very surprising in one particular case.
Samples were obtained from three separate house site by Dr Miles with the assistance of Richard Suggett (former investigator with the RCAHMW). Several other houses were also examined by Dr Andy Moir (Tree-Ring Services of Gloucester).
Sufficient samples were obtained from each house to enable the architectural development to be understood. The successful samples gave either precise dates (where bark was present) or an estimated felling range of about 30 years or so (where sapwood was present). Only a few of the samples taken proved insufficient to reach a date or indicate a phase of construction.
The main target of this project was the unit system site of Gwrhyd-mawr (Abertillery), although in the event, permission to sample the second house was not secured. Nevertheless, cores taken from the main house produced an exceptional and unexpectedly early date (‘nationally significant’ in the words of Dr Miles). One of the roof trusses was a reused medieval cruck with a date range of 1380-1410. Not only is this one of the earliest cruck halls recorded in Wales, but it had been constructed at a time when the country was wracked by revolt of Owain Glyndŵr. Someone, at this seemingly inappropriate time, decided to build a house and cut down a huge oak tree that had been growing before the Norman Conquest in order to do so. It is astonishing that this sole relic should have survived the reconstruction of the house in 1574, and again in the seventeenth century.
Other samples produced unexpectedly early dates, notably a cruck at Pistyll-gwyn (Pontypool) which gave a felling range of 1513-33, and at Ty-llwyd (Llanhilleth) precisely dated to 1485 (yet another significant time in Welsh, and indeed, English history). In both cases the crucks appear to have been retained from an early phase of the house, preserved in the cowsheds while the dwelling end of the buildings were ‘modernised’ with inserted upper floors and chimneys.
The outcome of the initial testing was highly successful and indicates that there is great potential in obtaining further dates, which will elucidate the development of post-medieval architecture in this region. Dr Miles has indicated that it may be possible to narrow down the felling date-range at Gwrhyd-mawr by further selective sampling. It is clear that these modest upland Gwent farmhouses are generally earlier than might be thought, and that some incorporate rare fragments of very earlier precursors.
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Katie Faillace, Cardiff University – Dietary Diversity in Medieval Wales: a high-resolution case study from Five Mile Lane, Barry
[Abstract to follow]
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Karen Lowery – Stones, Bones, Urns, Charcoal, Flint and Quartz: community excavation of a new complex/multiphase ring cairn in NE Wales
[Abstract to follow]
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHER SPEAKERS
Anna-Elyse Young – Lithics in West Cardiff: examining the struck flint assemblages from excavations at Caerau Hillfort and Trelai Park
© CAER Heritage
Recent excavations at Caerau Hillfort and Trelai Park provided new insights into the deep history of Caerau and Ely. This paper examines the struck lithic assemblages from the two sites, and how they impact our understanding of production, use and deposition of lithic material at different points in prehistory in West Cardiff.
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Becky Vickers, CDA PhD researcher, University of Sheffield and Eryri National Park Authority – Working Stone and Making Places in Neolithic Wales
Test pitting as part of the Landscape of Neolithic Axes Project at Cors y Carneddau, overlooking Waun Llanfair
It has been long demonstrated that Group VII axes came from a source known as Graig Lwyd, located above Penmaenmawr in North Wales. Lesser known, is that evidence for axe production can be found over a much wider landscape, including craggy upland environments with expansive views over Traeth Lafan and the Carneddau, to the sheltered plateau of a moorland basin. Despite an interesting history of work at Graig Lwyd, this wider landscape has been overlooked for a century. In 2019 the Landscape of Neolithic Axes Project (LNAP) funded and facilitated by the Carneddau Landscape Partnership Scheme, was established to plug this gap with a programme of fieldwork. Gwynedd Archaeological Trust (now Heneb) and Eryri National Park (ENPA) managed excavations undertaken by staff and volunteers. 150 test-pits and several trenches uncovered an extensive assemblage of axe material centred around outcrops of fine-grained microdiorite and scree. Evidence for axe working was uncovered away from the stone source, alongside potential contemporary settlements.
This paper presents the context, aims and preliminary results of a collaborative PhD between the University of Sheffield and ENPA. The project will undertake an extensive programme of lithic analysis of the assemblage generated by the LNAP. Museum collections and the HER has also been explored to shed light on the movement of axes in the immediate region. The PhD aims to explore variation and structure in axe working within the wider landscape. This paper will present preliminary results and discuss potential directions for inferring the social significance of these variations.
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Bill Powell, PhD researcher, Birkbeck, University of London – Trying to Make Sense of why some Coastal Mesolithic and Early Neolithic People chose Movement into the (Neglected) Landscape of Inland Pembrokeshire
This talk suggests that the prolific fishing resources of the Daugleddau and Cleddau waterways induced some Mesolithic populations to leave Pembrokeshire’s south-west coast. Movement included small groups seeking new food and material stratagems, with Early Neolithic people using the rivers as a routeway following in the wake of roaming ungulates.
Prolific clusters of Pembrokeshire’s later Mesolithic and Early Neolithic south-west coastal surface finds, recorded by Leach (1913) and Cantrill (1915), are encapsulated in recent coastal surveys (Murphy 1997). Early Mesolithic activity seems mostly absent, probably a result of progressively submerged landscapes over 8000 years ago (Garrow 2017). By comparison, researching Pembrokeshire’s inland Mesolithic and Neolithic activity has largely remained neglected until recently (David 2014), particularly up-river from the Milford Haven Sound along the Daugleddau and the Cleddaus.
This presentation utilises Historic Environment Records (HERs) to trace multiple surface lithic finds, with occasional diagnostic material, as indicators of past activity offering explanations as to why some groups chose to leave the coast either seasonally or permanently. The fertile coastal plains provided marine and terrestrial resources for generations supporting small encampments. However, some groups chose riverine routeways into Pembrokeshire’s interior which for the unwary must have risked encounters with darkened woodland landscapes.
The talk proposes that sourcing subsistence and lithic material strategies remained a major factor. The impact of eustatic rising sea levels could be another, reducing circa 50% of the available coastal hinterland by 6000 cal. BC (Bell 2007) between the sea and the east-west Milford Haven Sound. Maintaining a subsistence stratagem remained key.
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Cat Rees, CDP PhD researcher, University of Manchester and Amgueddfa Cymru – “Little men, who had been burnt, and their heads deposited in pots”: Using Welsh Myths, Traditions and Folklore to Enhance Interpretation of Pre-Roman Mortuary Sites
[Abstract to follow]
SPEAKERS ON NEW PROJECTS
Rachel Morgan-James – Insights into the Roman and Medieval Findings at Five Mile Lane, Barry
[Abstract to follow]
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Dr Oliver Davis and Professor Niall Sharples with Scott Bees, Cardiff University – Finding the Middle Bronze Age in unexpected places: Trelai Park, Cardiff
Since 2012, Cardiff University’s ‘CAER Heritage’ team have been investigating the hillfort of Caerau Camp, west Cardiff. Five seasons of excavations at the site have provided us with a good understanding of its development. This includes an important Early Neolithic phase and a complex Iron Age sequence which appears to end in the 1st century AD. Our focus has now turned to its environs. This is not easy as the hillfort is surrounded by modern housing, but a large leisure park, Trelai Park, located about 1500m from the site provides a big open area in which there is a known Roman villa. This seemed a good place for further investigation and in 2022 we identified another site within the park. We assumed this would be Iron Age, but excavations have shown this to be a Middle Bronze Age enclosure. The archaeology is particularly well-preserved and a large roundhouse within its interior has produced a large material assemblage and intact floor deposits. This paper will outline the major findings and place them into their broader context.
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Dr Caroline Pudney, University of Chester – A Roman Villa in Northeast Wales: discovery and implications
[Abstract to follow]
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Kate Churchill, Churchill Archaeology – The Prehistoric World of the Buckholt
The Iron Age Enclosure and the Neolithic Site at Buckholt Wood. Photo credit: Adam Stanford, AS Geospatial Surveys.
In June 2024, Churchill Archaeology organised a community archaeological evaluation on the Iron Age hilltop enclosure in Buckholt Woods near Monmouth on behalf of Buckholt Bryngaer CIC. Prior to the dig, very little was known about the site, despite its designation as a scheduled monument. With assistance from Amgueddfa Cymru, Churchill Archaeology welcomed seventy-four participants over five days.
It soon became apparent that the enclosure was much more substantial than previously thought, but it may not have been completed. The ramparts consisted of a c.5m high coursed stone wall, but not a single artefact was identified. In contrast, on a neighbouring summit, a local volunteer, who had been researching the area for 30 years, revealed the location of a large Early Neolithic flint scatter. Based on the assemblage and the earthworks present on the site, it appeared to be a ‘new’ Early Neolithic enclosure.
Additional funding to investigate both enclosures was acquired from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the evaluation took place in early October 2024. This talk will present the results of the excavation and discuss where we go from here.