archaeology
Pentre Ifan o’r diwedd
Cyhoeddodd y diweddar John Davies yn 2010 lyfr o’r enw Cymru: y 100 lle i’w gweld cyn marw, gyda lluniau gwych gan Marian Delyth. Wrth i’r blynyddoedd wibio heibio, dwi’n dechrau becso am y bylchau personol sy’n bod o hyd yn y rhestr hon, a rhestrau tebyg o leoedd ‘hanfodol eu gweld’ yng Nghymru. Dros […]
Avebury and the unknowable
This week we spent a few hours in Avebury in Wiltshire. The modern village sits beside (and partly upon) the largest Neolithic stone circle in Britain. It was my first visit since my parents took me to see it in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The stones left a lasting impression on my child’s […]
Return the Red Lady
Languish is the right word. In a corner of a remote museum there languish some ancient human bones. They were discovered by William Buckland in 1823 in Paviland, or Goat’s Hole, one of the many caves that punctuate the limestone cliffs on the south coast of Gower. The bones belonged to the person who became […]
Early archaeology in Wales: the ‘Precambrian’ era
The Cambrian Archaeological Association, established in 1847, was the first society devoted to the study of archaeology of Wales. This piece aims to tell the story of archaeology before that date. Archaeology, in the sense of the systematic study of the material remains of prehistoric and early historic times, can hardly be said to have […]
The Cambrian Archaeological Association in the 19th century
The first society in Wales devoted to the study of archaeology, the Cambrian Archaeological Association, was founded in 1847, largely through the efforts of two Welsh clergymen, Rev. Harry Longueville Jones (1806-1870) and Rev. John Williams, ‘Ab Ithel’ (1811-1862). Longueville Jones, London-born and not a Welsh speaker, had led a varied life: he was educated […]
Some nineteenth century Cardiff archaeologists
Nineteenth century Glamorgan saw the birth and rapid growth of an industrial working class. But also significant was the rise to prominence, and eventually to power, of an enlarged middle class. Cardiff, though it failed at first to diversify industrially much beyond coal-exporting, found a role as the chief commercial and administrative centre of south-east […]
Cynwrig’s stone foot
This week I finally managed to get to St Illtud’s Church in Llanelltyd, near Dolgellau, and see for myself the stone, just over three feet tall and chained up like a dog, that sits on a low plinth at the west end of the nave. In the dim light it’s very difficult to make out […]
Stephen W. Williams, engineer, architect, archaeologist
His name’s been familiar to me for years, but it’s only in recent months that I’ve got to know him better. In May this year I happened to stay the night in Penralley House, his home in Rhayader, and earlier in our walk up the Wye we passed Bryn Wern, a country house he designed […]
Cwm Cadlan
At the centre of Penderyn is the Lamb Inn, with its blue plaque commemorating ‘Lewsyn yr Heliwr’, one of the leaders of the 1831 Merthyr Rising. Almost opposite, there’s an ancient signpost labelled ‘Cwm Cadlan, Brecon County’. It points to a lane off to the east. After climbing gently for four or five miles across […]
Eagle
In summer 1972 I made two happy discoveries within the Roman fortress that had occupied the centre of Exeter. One of them was human. That encounter changed my life for good. The other was inanimate. Its impact on me wasn’t as great, but it did earn a small place in the history of research on […]