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Images

Image of Trefael (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by postman

Image credit: Chris Bickerton

postman Sep 23, 2009

Over inquisitive cows on rapid approach vector

Image credit: Chris Bickerton

postman Sep 23, 2009

Articles

Trefael

Trefael Stone burial site 'much older than previously thought'

moss Jan 13, 2014

Fascinating news from Wales.....

A ritual burial site in Pembrokeshire may have been in use 10,000 years ago – almost twice as far back as expected, said archaeologists.

The Trefael Stone near Nevern was reclassified as a Stone Age burial chamber after its capstone was studied.

But a three-year dig has since found beads dating back much further, perhaps to the Neolithic or Mesolithic periods.

Dr George Nash said the carbon dating of bones found there also suggested it was used as recently as 1,900 BC.

Bristol University and the Welsh Rock Art Organisation excavated at the site from 2009 and had permission to examine 1.9kg of cremated human bones.

Dr George Nash, who headed the dig, said that rather than trying to pinpoint a single moment in time, the excavation had revealed a site which was of symbolic significance to ancients for millennia.

He said: “The best comparison I can come up with is with a medieval churchyard.

“When you walk around it, the most obvious examples of graves from about 100 years ago, but when you search a little further you can see the evidence of older burials, and how the site has altered and evolved over the centuries.

“Why this site, or any other, became of such significance is still under debate.”

However, the best theory appears to be that sites such as these symbolised the periphery of prehistoric territories where hunter-gatherers would have met to trade and negotiate.

“Because they would have come back there generation after generation, it became ingrained in their collective psyche as a place of almost romantic importance,” said Dr Nash.

For centuries the Trefael standing stone was largely disregarded as just one of hundreds of similar Bronze Age monuments.

Yet closer analysis of its distinctive cup marks now indicate that they loosely match the pattern of stellar constellations.

This would only make sense if, rather than standing upright, it had originally been laid flat as a capstone which would have once been supported by a series of upright stones.

Dr Nash believes the Trefael Stone in fact topped a Neolithic burial chamber, probably a portal dolmen, which is one of western Britain’s earliest burial monument types.

“Many years ago Trefael was considered just a simple standing stone lying in a windswept field, but the excavation programme has proved otherwise,” he said.

“It suggests that Trefael once lay in the heart of a ritualised landscape that was in operation for at least 5-6,000 years.

“The geophysical survey has shown that most of the area within a 1km (0.6 mile) radius of the site has significant archaeological remains beneath the soil, including at least seven probable barrows and a number of later prehistoric enclosures.

“The discovery of human remains and their subsequent date range is the icing on the cake.”

Archaeologists at the Trefael Stone The team dug at the site for three years to discover its secrets
Though after 6,000 years of continuous use, Trefael appears to have been abandoned shortly after the date of the human remains unearthed there.

Dr Nash said: “We’ll never have all the answers. It’s amazing that we’ve found this much in the notoriously acidic Pembrokeshire soil, which normally destroys any ancient artefacts.

“But it’s not surprising that the significance of Trefael seems to have fallen away after the mid-Bronze Age. It ties in with what we know of
similar burial sites around Europe.

“As the importance of metal grew, those who controlled the natural resources became ever more powerful.

“So Bronze Age Wales moves away from the democratised society of mass ritual burials, to one where power is concentrated in the hands of a relatively small warrior elite.”

The Trefael Project is run by members of the Welsh Rock Art Organisation, a non-profit research body specially interested in researching and promoting prehistoric rock art in Wales.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-25689652

Trefael

Trefael Stone reveals stone age burial chamber

moss May 24, 2012

More news though not necessarily new, the BBC article has a good couple of photos though.

Archaeologists are to exhume and analyse human bones found under a prehistoric monument only recently identified as a burial site cap.

The Trefael Stone in Pembrokeshire was thought to be just one of many linked to nearby Bronze Age locations.

But it has now been reclassified after a survey established it as the capstone of a Stone Age ritual burial chamber.

The survey revealed the location, near Nevern, has been used for ritual burials for at least 5,500 years.

An archaeological team from the University of Bristol has been given permission to examine the human bones found there along with beads and shards of pottery.

The importance of the stone has been overlooked since it first appeared on maps in 1889.

The first suggestion it may be more significant than one of Wales’ many prehistoric standing stones was in 1972 when archaeologist Frances Lynch suggested it could be a dolmen, or burial chamber.

University of Bristol visiting fellow Dr George Nash and colleagues Thomas Wellicome and Adam Stanford held an excavation in September 2010 and returned again last year.

As well as unearthing the human remains, beads and pottery, they found a stone cist – a half-metre long coffin-like container – which they estimate was put there in the later Bronze Age.

The find indicates the site may have been reused as a burial location long after the original stone chamber was built.

Their findings suggest it may prove to be Wales’ earliest Neolithic ritual burial location and one of the earliest in Western Europe.

Dr Nash said he knew of Lynch’s 1972 comment on the stone, and that no geophysical survey or excavation had been carried out.

He said: “I’ve always had this hunch that it could be much bigger. It’s extremely exciting. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime finds.”

The stone is already noted for a number cupmarks or circular holes gouged out during its ritual use in the Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonies.

The archaeologists found a further 30 cupmarks of varying size on the 1.2m high stone.

Dr Nash said they were able to establish the site was stone burial chamber, built from giant boulders, going back to around 3,500 BC, which was then dismantled about 2,000 BC.

The capstone was then used as a procession marker standing stone pointing to nearby Bronze Age locations he said.

The beads suggest the location may be associated with burials long before even the burial chamber was built, as they may relate to a nearby Mesolithic site dating back 10,000 years, he said.

Dr Nash said the team were amazed that any artefacts were found at the site given the acidic nature of the soil, centuries of agriculture and the area’s popularity over the generations with people seeking to unearth ancient treasures.

Dr Nash said: “The soils around this site are very acidic, so I’m astonished how the pottery and the bones have survived all this time.

“It’s a big problem in Wales because of a lot of sites have in excavated by antiquarians who have just dug a hole looking for goodies, then taken what they want but have wrecked the site.

“What we have found is extremely rare.”

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has updated its records on the basis of Dr Nash’s work.

Dr Nash said the Ministry of Justice had since licensed the team to remove the bones for analysis, including radiocarbon dating, when they return to the site in September.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18172598

Trefael

Secrets of the earliest Britons could be hidden in 5,000-year-old tomb

fitzcoraldo Apr 10, 2012

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Neolithic portal dolmen, one of Western Europe’s oldest ritual burial chambered monuments, in an isolated field in Wales.

It is thought the tomb was built from giant boulders about 5,500 years ago. Its capstone bears a seemingly random pattern of dozens of circular holes gouged into its surface – symbols of Neolithic or Bronze Age ritual burial activity.

Trefael

Standing stone may have guided the ancients through 'sacred landscape'

baza Dec 1, 2010

A solitary stone in a windswept Welsh field has helped shed light on how our neolithic ancestors came together in worship thousands of years ago.

A recent excavation programme at a standing stone known as Trefael, near Newport in Pembrokeshire, has revealed at least two unique episodes in its early history.

Archaeologists say as well as being a portal dolmen (a tomb made of giant stones) the standing stone was probably used as a ritual marker to guide communities through a sacred landscape.

Bristol University lecturer Dr George Nash, archaeologist and specialist in prehistoric and contemporary art, said the stones acted to create a precinct of sacred ground in the county.

The idea was that our neolithic ancestors could follow an organised pattern of worship, similar to that of church-goers in modern times.

What we have got is human communities who were very similar to ourselves. The neolithic communities had designated landscapes that were special and sacred, said Mr Nash.

Trefael

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

postman Sep 23, 2009

A visit with a couple of differences.
As I approached the field that contains this cup marked stone I was slowed down by a funeral prosession walking slowly up the road, they eventually passed into the field next door to the one I wanted and I passed them by, parking at the end of Cwmgloyne farm lane.
I walked back down the road to the gate, I could see the stone at the other end of the field near another gate but I could also see a herd of young cows, as soon as I was in the field with the gate closed behind me they all rushed over far too quickly I got out sharpish.
I walked down the road a bit more and found the stile into the field, once over the stile they saw me and came over to resume the meet and greet
another sharp exit.
What to do ? I wasnt going to let Mcdonalds wannabes get the better of me.
I walked into the field the funeral procession had entered in the hope of making it to the other gate that the stone was next to, the funaraleers had congregated in the next field over and were obviously doing the deed.
I tried my best to melt into the scenery and two fences later I was in the field with the gate, Harry Secombe was doing his level best to be heard in heaven and was doing really well. I slowly and silently approached the gate, the cupmarked stone was about 10metres away and the stoopid cows were way over there.
I swallowed heavily and entered the arena camera at the ready, they wouldnt give me long with my metamorphic friend.
Three speedy pictures and they were on to me, god cows can move quick, as I locked the gate I felt hot breath on my cheek. Hah, I beat you,
would a cow feel an empty pop bottle hit upon its head, I liked to think so. All this accompanied by loud Welsh funeral music made it a really bizzare stone hunt, but very enjoyable.

Trefael

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

postman Sep 21, 2009

A large tilted slab whose upper surface swarms with cupmarks.

Coflein not giving much away again, race you to it.

Trefael

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

moss Feb 21, 2013

Current Archaeology

A project to record the prehistoric decoration on the supposedly Bronze Age Trefael stone has revealed the deliberate cannibalisation of an earlier Neolithic monument, and an 8,000 -year focus of human activity. George Nash, Adam Stanford, Carol James, and Thomas Wellicome explain.

Trefael

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

moss Apr 10, 2012

Welsh Rock Art Organisation

Trefael Portal tomb – 2010 Excavation

Trefael

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

fitzcoraldo Apr 10, 2012

Past Horizons

New discoveries at Trefael Stone in Wales

The Trefael Stone, standing in a large rectangular field north of the village of Nevern in west Pembrokeshire, until 2010, was considered to be a standing stone, one of a number that occupy this ancient landscape. Used as a cattle rubbing stone, it measures around 1.2 m in height and over 2 m in length and has on its southern face up to 75 cupmarks.