Archaeologist sheds light on Wales’ Neolithic sites

Dale Spridgeon Local Democracy Reporter

An archaeological expert on Neolithic sites and rock art is shedding light on sites across Wales.

Dr George Nash recently visited Oriel Môn in Llangefni to promote his new book The Neolithic Tombs of Wales.

A regular visitor to the island to study local sites, Dr Nash drew a large crowd recently at the Anglesey County Council-run museum and art gallery.

More than 250 Neolithic burial-ritual sites endure across Wales and his book focuses on 100 sites where “significant” remains can still be seen.

Expert

Dr Nash is a specialist in prehistoric and contemporary art, and director of the Welsh rock art association.

He has directed excavations at many Neolithic burial-ritual monuments and is the author of numerous books on Neolithic, prehistoric and contemporary rock art.

His latest publication examines the various regional and architectural styles deployed “to venerate and house the dead” whilst also identifying five different styles of chambered tombs.

His books explains why different styles developed in the ways and locations they did, and casts light on some of the latest knowledge, understanding of monument construction and burial practices and rites during the Neolithic period.

Some of the “most diverse” mortuary architecture of the period can be found on Ynys Môn and in North Wales.

World famous

Among the many locations in North Wales featured are the world-famous passage graves on Ynys Môn, Barclodiad y Gawres and Bryn Celli Ddu.

His work also seeks to understand and describe many of the more simple “portal dolmens” which feature large horizontal capstones held up by two or more upright stones.

Examples include Gwern Einion, which was incorporated into a sheep enclosure and wall, or the “much ruined” remains of Cors-y-Gedol, both near Harlech.

The most famous Neolithic tomb site in Wales is Bryn Celli Ddu on Ynys Môn.

Located in a field at Llanddaniel Fab, and dated to around 3000BC, it is a site where people still gather for ceremonies today.

Bryn Celli Ddu or ‘Mound in the Dark Grove’ is the place where on the Summer Solstice a beam of sunlight is cast down the tomb’s passage illuminating the chamber inside.

Dr Nash notes that dating the mound was established by the work of researcher Steve Burrow from the National Museum of Wales, who radio carbon dated human bone from the site.

Coming from the late Neolithic period – it was found that the site incorporated a henge bank and ditch, which enclosed a circle of stones, but was later replaced by a chambered tomb beneath a mound.

Dr Nash believes it to have a “temporal association” with Bronze Age monuments nearby, including a standing stone in a field some 200m west.

He also points to recent research which found 26 plus ring marks on rocky outcropping some 250m north east.

Within recent history, the site has been restored, but tantalising images of what it might have been like originally are found in historic sketches and accounts he has collected, including those by Reverend John Skinner, an amateur archaeologist, in 1802.

He made, what Dr Nash describes as, “detailed” and “quirky” observations.

Skinner also gives insight into attitudes of the day, with descriptions of farmers plundering the once venerated tomb sites for treasure or using the stones for wall-building.

Bryn Celli Ddu also features examples of megalithic rock art with decoration including an anti-clockwise spiral.

A stone known as the ‘Pattern Stone’ belonging to the early henge stage, was also found adjacent to what Dr Nash says was possibly a ritual pit in the centre of the monument.

Another passage tomb which features particularly impressive examples of rock art, is at Barclodiad Y Gawres.

In a dramatic coastal location it overlooks Porth Trecastell between Rhosneigr and Aberffraw.

Rev Skinner was again one of the first to document the tomb, though a number of published descriptions, photographs, and excavations followed, but it was not until 1937 that “the full extent of the chamber and mound” was exposed.

He also described how Barclodiad Y Gawres is sadly set within a modern, reconstructed form – the tomb has concrete domed roof and dry stone wall around it.

Dr Nash likens it to an “air raid bunker from outside”.

But inside, at the end of a passage, is an atmospheric chamber containing a treasure trove of rocks with displays of spirals, cup and ring marks, lozenges, chevrons and zig zags.

“It’s very impressive, it’s definitely worth a visit,” he said.

He added: “Ynys Môn and North Wales offer some of the most diverse mortuary architecture that the Neolithic period (4000-2000 BC) has to offer.

“It has got everything from simple portal dolmens, such as Gwern Einion or Cors-y-Gedol near Harlech, to the world-famous passage graves of Barclodiad y Gawres and Bryn Celli Ddu on Ynys Môn.

“These now fragmented 5,000-year-old monuments have done much to shape both ancient and modern Wales by creating a unique sense of belonging.”

Dr Nash is an associate professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and honorary researcher within the department of archaeology, classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool.

The Neolithic Tombs of Wales is published by Logaston Press and is £25.