Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T15:32:07.466Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Excavations at Stackpole Warren, Dyfed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

D. G. Benson ,
J. G. Evans ,
G. H. Williams ,
T. Darvill ,
A. David ,
D. Brennan ,
A. E. Caseldine ,
R. Cole ,
Q. Dresser  and
L. M. Hyde
...Show all authors
D. G. Benson
Affiliation:
Dyfed Archaeological Trust, The Old Palace, Abergwili, Carmarthen, Dyfed SA31 2JG
J. G. Evans
Affiliation:
School of History and Archaeology, University of Wales College of Cardiff, PO Box 909, Cardiff CF1 3XU
G. H. Williams
Affiliation:
Dyfed Archaeological Trust, The Old Palace, Abergwili, Carmarthen, Dyfed SA31 2JG
T. Darvill
Affiliation:
1 The Grove, Dyehouse, Woodchester, Gloucester GL5 4EZ
A. David
Affiliation:
English Heritage, Fortress House, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
D. Brennan
Affiliation:
Dyfed Archaeological Trust, The Old Palace, Abergwili, Carmarthen, Dyfed SA31 2JG
A. E. Caseldine
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, St David's University College, Lampeter, Dyfed SA48 7ED
R. Cole
Affiliation:
School of History and Archaeology, University of Wales College of Cardiff, PO Box 909, Cardiff CF1 3XU
Q. Dresser
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Wales College of Cardiff
L. M. Hyde
Affiliation:
School of History and Archaeology, University of Wales College of Cardiff, PO Box 909, Cardiff CF1 3XU
T. O'connor
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology Unit, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD
J. L. Wilkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University of Wales College of Cardiff
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 56 , 1990 , pp. 179 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ApSimon, A. M. 1976. A view of the early prehistory of Wales. In Boon, G. and Lewis, J. M. (eds), Welsh Antiquity, 37–54. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
ApSimon, A. M., Musgrave, J. H., Sheldon, J., Tratman, E. K. and van Wijngaarden-Bakker, L. H. 1976. Gorsey Bigbury, Cheddar, Somerset: Radiocarbon dating, human and animal bones, charcoals, archaeological reassessment. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society 14, 155–83.Google Scholar
Avery, M. 1982. The Neolithic causewayed enclosure, Abingdon. In Case, H. J. and Whittle, A. W. R. (eds), Settlement Patterns in the Oxford Region: Excavations at the Abingdon Causewayed Enclosure and Other Sites, 10–50. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Avery, M. and Close-Brooks, J. 1969. Shearplace Hill, Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset, house A: a suggested re-interpretation. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 35, 345–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balch, H. E. and Palmer, P. 1926. Excavations at Chelms Combe, Cheddar. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society 72, 93–123.Google Scholar
Barfield, L. H. and Hodder, M. 1988. Burnt mounds as saunas and the prehistory of bathing. Antiquity 61, 370–79.Google Scholar
Bateman, J. 1977. A Late Bronze Age cremation cemetery and Iron Age/Romano-British enclosures in the parish of Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire. Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society 88, 9–47.Google Scholar
Benson, D. G., Briggs, C. S., Davies, J. L. and Williams, G. H. 1982. A Bronze Age cemetery at Llanilar, Ceredigion. Ceredigion 9 (3), 281–92.Google Scholar
Benson, D. G. and Williams, G. H. 1987. Dale promontory fort. Archaeology in Wales 27, 43.Google Scholar
Brezillon, M. 1983. La Dénomination des Objects de Pierre Tailleé. IV Supplément à Gallia Préhistoire. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar
Britnell, W. 1982. The excavation of two round barrows at Trelystan, Powys. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 48, 133–202.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. 1980a. The Age of Stonehenge. London: Dent.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. 1980b. The Bronze Age in Wales. In Taylor, J. A. (ed.), Culture and Environment in Prehistoric Wales, 243–86. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 76.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. 1985. Population, climate and upland settlement. In Spratt, D. and Burgess, C. (eds), Upland Settlement in Britain, 195–231. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 143.Google Scholar
Case, H. J. 1977. The Beaker cultures in Britain and Ireland. In Mercer, R. (ed.), Beakers in Britain and Europe, 71–101. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, I.S. 26.Google Scholar
Cherry, J. 1982. Sea cliff erosion at Drigg, Cumbria: evidence of prehistoric habitation. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 82, 1–6.Google Scholar
Clark, J. G. D., Higgs, E. S. and Longworth, I. H. 1960. Excavations at the Neolithic site at Hurst Fen, Mildenhall, Suffolk (1954, 1957 and 1958). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 26, 202–45.Google Scholar
Clarke, D. L. 1970. Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland. (2 vols.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, D. L. 1976. The Beaker network — social and economic models. In Lanting, J. N. and van der Waals, J. D. (eds), Glockenbechersymposion Oberried, 1974, 459–77. Haarlem: Bussum.Google Scholar
Cole, R. 1978. The Marine Mollusca from Stackpole Warren. University of Wales College of Cardiff: Unpublished undergraduate thesis.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. C. 1982. Stackpole Warren, Dyfed — Earlier Prehistoric Pottery: Archive Report. Manuscript with DAT.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. C. 1983. The Neolithic of Wales and the Mid-west of England: A Systemic Analysis of Social Change through the Application of Action Theory. University of Southampton: Unpublished Ph.D thesis.Google Scholar
David, A. 1989. Some aspects of the human presence in west Wales during the Mesolithic. In Bonsall, C. (ed.), The Mesolithic in Europe, 241–53. Edinburgh: John Donald.Google Scholar
Davies, M. and Kennedy, R. A. 1969. Cave sites. Archaeology in Wales 9, 13–14.Google Scholar
Davies, M. 1972. Ogof Garreg Hir. Archaeology in Wales 12, 18–19.Google Scholar
Davies, M. 1975. Ogof Morfran. Archaeology in Wales 15, 38.Google Scholar
Davies, M. 1976. Ogof Bran Groesgoch and Ogof Garreg Hir. Archaeology in Wales 16, 28.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G. 1979. The palaeo-environment of coastal blownsand deposits in western and northern Britain. Scottish Archaeological Forum 9, 16–26.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G. 1990. An archaeological survey of Skomer, Dyfed. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 56, 247–67.Google Scholar
Fox, C. 1926. A Bronze Age barrow on Kilpaison Burrows, Rhoscrowther, Pembrokeshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis 81, 1–35.Google Scholar
Fox, C. 1938. Two Bronze Age cairns in south Wales: Simondston and Pond Cairns, Coity Higher Parish, Bridgend. Archaeologia 87, 129–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, C. 1943. A Bronze Age barrow (Sutton 268) in Llandow Parish, Glamorgan. Archaeologia 89, 89–126.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. 1980. Pot beakers in Britain? Antiquity 54, 219–21.Google Scholar
Gordon-Williams, J. P. 1926a. Linney Burrows. A Bronze Age grave mound. Archaeologia Cambrensis 81, 186–90.Google Scholar
Gordon-Williams, J. P. 1926b. Note on bronze slag from Gateholm and various stray finds from Pembrokeshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis 81, 191–92.Google Scholar
Gowlett, J. A. J., Hedges, R. E. M., Law, I. A. and Perry, C. 1987. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 5. Archaeometry 29, 125–55.Google Scholar
Green, H. S. 1980. The Flint Arrowheads of the British Isles. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 75.Google Scholar
Grimes, W. F. 1933. Priory Farm Cave, Monkton, Pembrokeshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis 88, 88–100.Google Scholar
Grimes, W. F. 1950. The archaeology of Skomer Island. Archaeologia Cambrensis 101, 1–20.Google Scholar
Grimes, W. F. 1951. The Prehistory of Wales. Cardiff: The National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Grimes, W. F. 1965. Archaeology in Wales 5, 4.Google Scholar
Guilbert, G. 1982. Post-ring symmetry in roundhouses at Moel-y-Gaer and some other sites in prehistoric Britain. In Drury, P. J. (ed.), Structural Reconstruction: Approaches to the Interpretation of the Excavated remains of Buildings, 67–86. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 110.Google Scholar
Harding, D.W. 1972. The Iron Age in the Upper Thames Basin. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Healey, E. and Green, H. S. 1984. The lithic industries. In Britnell, W. J. and Savory, H. N. (eds), Gwernvale and Penywyrlod: Two Neolithic Long Cairns in the Black Mountains of Brecknock, 113–32. Bangor: Cambrian Archaeological Association.Google Scholar
Hedges, J. 1974–1975. Excavation of two Orcadian burnt mounds at Liddle and Beaquoy. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 106, 39–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, R. E. M., Housley, R. A., Law, I. A. and Perry, C. 1988. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 7. Archaeometry 30 (1), 155–64.Google Scholar
Hedges, R. E. M., Housley, R. A., Law, I. A. and Bronk, C. R. 1989. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 9. Archaeometry 31 (2), 207–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herity, M. 1982. Irish decorated Neolithic pottery. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy C 82, 247–404.Google Scholar
Higgins, L. S. 1933. An investigation into the problem of the sand dune areas on the south Wales coast. Archaeologia Cambrensis 88, 26–67.Google Scholar
Hussey, M. S. 1966. Final excavations at the Lesser Garth Cave, Pentyrch. Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalist Society 93, 18–27 and 34–36.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R. M. 1978. The Mesolithic of Sussex. In Drewett, P. L. (ed.), Archaeology in Sussex to AD 1500, 15–22. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R. M. 1980. The early Holocene settlements of Wales. In Taylor, J. A. (ed.), Culture and Environment in Prehistoric Wales, 131–206. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 76.Google Scholar
Jarrett, M. G. and Wrathmell, S. 1981. Whitton: An Iron Age and Roman Farmstead in South Glamorgan. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, N.J. and David, A. 1982. A Mesolithic site on Trevose Head and contemporary geography. Cornish Archaeology 21, 67–103.Google Scholar
Lacaille, A. D. and Grimes, W. F. 1961. The prehistory of Caldey, Archaeologia Cambrensis 110, 30–70.Google Scholar
Laming, J. N. and van der Waals, J. D. 1972. British beakers as seen from the Continent. Helinium 12, 20–46.Google Scholar
Laws, E. 1882. A lost church. Archaeologia Cambrensis, 14th ser. 13, 51–58.Google Scholar
Laws, E. 1888. History of Little England beyond Wales. London: George Bell and Sons.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. M. 1974. Excavations at Rhos-y-Clegyrn prehistoric site, St Nicholas, Pembs. Archaeologia Cambrensis 123, 13–42.Google Scholar
Longworth, I. 1984. Collared Urns of the Bronze age in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M. 1970. Prehistoric Anglesey. Llangefni: The Anglesey Antiquarian Society.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M. 1975. Excavations at Carreg Samson megalithic tomb, Mathry, Pembrokeshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis 124, 15–35.Google Scholar
Mathias, A. G. O. 1927. South Pembrokeshire early settlements. Archaeologia Cambrensis 82, 188–95.Google Scholar
Mellars, P. A. 1987. Excavations on Oronsay: Prehistoric Human Ecology on a Small Island. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, K. 1986. Plas Gogerddan, Trefeirig. Archaeology in Wales 26, 29–31.Google Scholar
Musson, C. R. 1970. House phases and prehistory. Current Archaeology 2, 267–75.Google Scholar
Musson, C. R. 1975. In Lynch, F. (ed.), Brenig valley excavations, 1974. Denbighshire Historical Transactions 24, 1–25.Google Scholar
Mytum, H. and Williams, G. H. 1980. Llawhaden. Archaeology in Wales 20, 38–41.Google Scholar
Mytum, H. and Williams, G. H. 1981. Llawhaden radiocarbon dates. Archaeology in Wales 21, 34.Google Scholar
Norman, C. 1977. A flint assemblage from Constantine Island, north Cornwall. Cornish Archaeology 16, 3–9.Google Scholar
Owen-John, H. 1988. A hillslope enclosure in Coed-y-Cymdda, near Wenvoe, South Glamorgan. Archaeologia Cambrensis 197, 43–98.Google Scholar
Pearson, G. W. 1979. Belfast radiocarbon dates IX. Radiocarbon 21, 279.Google Scholar
Penniman, T. K. 1932. Culver Hole Cave, and vicinity, Llangennith and Llanmadoc, Gower. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 6, 196–200.Google Scholar
RCAHM, 1925. Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments for Wales: Pembrokeshire Inventory.Google Scholar
Saville, A. 1981. Iron Age flint-workings — fact or fiction? Newsletter of the Lithics Studies Society no. 2, pp. 6–9.Google Scholar
Savory, H. N. 1952. The excavation of a Neolithic dwelling and a Bronze Age cairn at Mount Pleasant Farm, Nottage, Glamorgan. Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists Society 81, 75–91.Google Scholar
Savory, H. N. 1956. A corpus of Welsh Bronze Age pottery. I: beakers. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 16, 215–41.Google Scholar
Savory, H. N. 1957. A corpus of Welsh Bronze Age pottery. II: food vessels. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 17, 196–233.Google Scholar
Savory, H. N. 1959–1960. The excavation of a Bronze Age cairn at Sant-y-Nyll, St Brides-super-Ely (Glam.). Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists Society 89, 9–30.Google Scholar
Savory, H. N. 1972. Copper age cists and cist graves in Wales: with special reference to Newton, Swansea and other multiple cist cairns. In Lynch, F. M. and Burgess, C. (eds), Prehistoric Man in Wales and the West, 117–40. Bath: Adams and Dart.Google Scholar
Savory, H. N. 1976. Welsh hillforts. A reappraisal of recent research. In Harding, D.W. (ed.), Hillforts: Later Prehistoric Earthworks in Britain and Ireland, 237–91. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Savory, H. N. 1980. Guide Catalogue to the Bronze Age Collections: National Museum of Wales. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Simpson, D. D. A. 1971. Beaker houses and settlements in Britain. In Simpson, D. D. A. (ed.), Economy and Settlement in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain and Europe, 131–52. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F. 1965. Windmill Hill and Avebury. Excavations by Alexander Keiller 1925–1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stanford, S. C. 1982. Bromfield, Shropshire — Neolithic, Beaker and Bronze Age sites, 1966–1979. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 48, 279–320.Google Scholar
Vyner, B. E. 1986. Woodbarn, Wiston: a Pembrokeshire rath. Archaeologia Cambrensis 125, 121–33.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. 1959. The excavation of a Mesolithic site at Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 18, 196–205.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. 1967. Coygan Camp: A Prehistoric, Romano-British and Dark Age Settlement in Carmarthenshire. Cardiff: Cambrian Archaeological Association.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. 1971. The excavation of a fortified settlement at Walesland Rath, Pembrokeshire. Britannia 2, 48–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. and Longworth, I. H. 1971. Durrington Walls 1966–1968. London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Wait, G. A. 1985. Ritual and Religion in Iron Age Britain. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 149.Google Scholar
Walker, L. 1984. The deposition of the human remains. In Cunliffe, B., Danebury. An Iron Age Hillfort in Hampshire. The Excavations 1969–1978, 442–63. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Ward, J. 1916. St Nicholas chambered tumulus, Glamorgan. Pt. II: The finds. Archaeologia Cambrensis 14, 239–67.Google Scholar
Whimster, R. 1981. Burial Practices in Iron Age Britain: A Discussion and Gazetteer of the Evidence c. 700 BC—AD 43. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 90.Google Scholar
Williams, A. W. 1952. Clegyr Boia, St Davids (Pemb.): excavation in 1943. Archaeologia Cambrensis 102 (1), 20–47.Google Scholar
Williams, G. H. 1981. Survey and excavations on Pembrey Mountain. Carmarthenshire Antiquary 17, 3–33.Google Scholar
Williams, G. H. 1982. Llawhaden. Archaeology in Wales 22, 19–21.Google Scholar
Williams, G. H. 1983. Llawhaden. Archaeology in Wales 23, 26–30.Google Scholar
Williams, G. H. 1984. Llawhaden. Archaeology in Wales 24, 46–48.Google Scholar
Williams, G. H. 1985. An Iron Age cremation deposit from Castle Backet, Letterston, Pembrokeshire. Archaeology in Wales 25, 13–15.Google Scholar
Williams, G. H. 1988a. aRecent work on rural settlements in later prehistoric and early historic Dyfed. Antiquaries Journal 68, 30–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, G. H. 1988b. The Standing Stones of Wales and South-west England. Oxford: British Archaeological reports 197.Google Scholar
Williams, G. H., Taylor, J. A., Hunt, C., Heyworth, A. and Benson, D. G. 1987. A burnt mound at Felin Fulbrook, Tregaron, Ceredigion. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 34, 228–43.Google Scholar