Huge palisade enclosure in Wales

The small village of Walton (Powys, Wales) was, it seems, long ago a ceremonial center for the ancient peoples of Britain between 3800 and 2300 BCE. At the very least it had a huge palisaded enclosure that could have accommodated five buildings of the size of the London Olympic Stadium within its circa 1200 posts, each said to be 4 m. high. 

Digital reconstruction of the ceremonial site

Besides the structure itself, which has been investigated for decades, pottery, flint tools and food remains have been found. Apparently the site hosted some kind of regular festival of unknown characteristics. 

Source: Wales Online.

 

South Wales cave could host Britain’s oldest cave art

Update: it’s been known that the site is Gower Cave.

A cave in South Wales, whose exact location is being kept secret by the moment, may host Britain’s oldest rock art. 

The discovery of faint engravings depicting reindeer by professor George Nash was accidental, as he took a relax moment after showing the cave to students. The unnamed cave is known for Late Magdalenian artifacts, dated c. 12-14 Ka ago. 

Full story at BBC. 

 

Some Archaeo News from many millennia ago

A couple of snippets from the latest Archaeo News newsletter from Stone Pages:

Epipaleolithic findings in Monmouth, Wales

They show that the river Wye, at the Welsh-English border, was used for food and transport by Epipaleolithic Britons, some 6500 to 7500 years ago.

Source: BBC

Early Neolithic art form Tal al-Abar, Syrian Kurdistan

Dated to c. 10,000 years ago, they include some nice artwork on chloritis, a greenish semiprecious stone. The artwork includes several panels on this material and some smaller objects.

Source: SANA

 

Epipaleolithic fish traps from Wales and Ireland

A couple of news items again mentioned by Archaeo News:

Archaeologist Andrew Petersen is exploring willow walls under the sea at Wales. The researcher, who recently uncovered a whole medieval town under coastal sands in Qatar, is now turning his attention to what he believes are fish traps created by Epipaleolithic ‘Welsh’ fisherpeople at its coasts. (Source: Wales Online)

Gibbons at a cochill trap

In a parallel development, another archaeologist, Michael Gibbons, is researching now fish-catching stone structures in Ireland, which apparently also date to the Epipaleolithic but, oddly enough, are still made and used by some modern coastal fishermen. They use these artificial coastal ponds to catch a fish called marine or mearachán, which seems to be a type of smelt. The traps are known as cochill and their design has been transmitted through generations till present day. (Source: Irish Times).