Ceredigion

Skeletal trees of Borth forest, last alive 4,500 years ago and linked to lost kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod, appear at shoreline.

A prehistoric forest, an eerie landscape including the trunks of hundreds of oaks that died more than 4,500 years ago, has been revealed by the ferocious storms which stripped thousands of tons of sand from beaches in Cardigan Bay.

The forest of Borth once stretched for miles on boggy land between Borth and Ynyslas, before climate change and rising sea levels buried it under layers of peat, sand and saltwater.

Scientists have identified pine, alder, oak and birch among the stumps which are occasionally exposed in very stormy winters, such as in 2010, when a stretch of tree remains was revealed conveniently opposite the visitor centre.

The skeletal trees are said to have given rise to the local legend of a lost kingdom, Cantre’r Gwaelod, drowned beneath the waves. The trees stopped growing between 4,500 and 6,000 years ago, as the water level rose and a thick blanket of peat formed.

This year a great swath of the lost forest has been revealed. Last month archaeologists also found a timber walkway nearby, exposed by the storms. It was discovered by Ross Cook and Deanna Groom, from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, who went beach walking in the wake of the storms to check for any new finds. It was made from short lengths of coppiced branches, held in place with upright posts.

It has been dated to between 3,100 and 4,000 years old, built as the local people found ways to cope with living in an increasingly waterlogged environment.

Two years ago human and animal footprints were found preserved in the hardened top layer of peat, along with scatterings of burnt stones from ancient hearths.

A £13m coastal defence system to protect the modern village was opened in 2012, but as the recent exposure of the spectacular prehistoric landscape proves, the coast is still being scoured bare by storms and flood tides.

By Maeve Kennedy

theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/20/prehistoric-forest-borth-cardigan-bay-wales

From the RCAHMW blog at
heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.com/2012/03/prehistoric-landscape-uncovered-at.html

“It’s a race against tide this week at Borth in Ceredigion. Archaeologists have a short window of opportunity to record, excavate and carry out palaeo-environemntal sampling of a large expanse of peat recently exposed beneath the sands on the beach. The peat together with a number of tree stumps and branches, provide a glimpse at the earlier Prehistoric environment, a time when the sea shore lay further west and this was an area of salt marsh. Of particular interest are the series of human and animal footprints fossilized in the now hardened peat surface, a line of post holes perhaps part of a causeway that once crossed the marsh, and also scatters of burnt stone, possible burnt mounds that are often associated with the Bronze Age.

A submerged forest to the north of this site has previously been studied by archaeologists coflein.gov.uk/en/site/506500/details/SUBMERGED+FOREST%2C+BORTH+SANDS/

The emergency archaeological work is being carried out by staff and students of the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity St David. The Royal Commission has provided survey support, mapping the extents of the peat and other exposed features.”

Britain’s most ancient fishing trap has been discovered off the coastline of Wales after research carried out on Google Earth.

The 853ft (260m) long construction is thought to have been built 1,000 years ago, around the time of the Domesday Book, using large rocks placed on a river bed.

Scientists believe large numbers of people worked together to erect the trap and it allowed them to catch plentiful numbers of fish for their supper.

telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5000835/1000-year-old-fishing-trap-found-on-Google-Earth.html

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 6th August 2006:

Archaeologists excavating an Iron Age farmstead in west Wales say the site may have been home to “several families” as early as 200 BC.

After two weeks’ digging at the 2,000-year-old plot, the team have uncovered the remains of a circular house together with pits and postholes.

Other buildings found last year appear to have been surrounded by two large protective ditches and banks.

The site, near Tremain, Ceredigion, is open to the public on Sunday 6 August.

Read the full article...

A day school aimed at anyone who is interested in the history and archaeology of Ceredigion is running on Saturday 4th March between 10.50 a.m. and 4.30 p.m.

The event is taking place at the Hugh Owen Lecture Theatre, Aberystwyth University [sic].

Cambria Archaeology

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 29th July 2005:

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a Roman lead smelting site in a peat bog in Ceredigion.

Dating back about 2,000 years, Cambria Archaeology said mines in the Borth area could have supplied the heavy, bluish-grey metal for production.

Someone should really point out to this lot that 2000 years ago the Romans hadn’t got to Wales. Even taking the inaccuracies of carbon dating into account, it seems likely that the lead smelting was being carried out by the indigenous Celts rather than Romans.

Read the full article...

Archaeologists were called in to investigate the site near Llandysul after workmen clearing farmland for a new Welsh Development Agency industrial estate noticed dark circles in the soil.

Cambria Archaeology workers then identified several large circular graves from the Bronze Age.

And about 200 yards away they found the foundations of a farmyard wall which could have been built 5,000 years ago.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3171595.stm