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An Archaeological Investigation of Early Mineworkings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth: New Evidence for Prehistoric Mining

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Simon Timberlake  and
Roy Switsur
Simon Timberlake
Affiliation:
Geological Museum, Exhibition Rd., London SW7 2DE
Roy Switsur
Affiliation:
Godwin Laboratory, Sub-Department of Quaternary Research, Free School La., Cambridge CB2 3RS
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Extract

In September 1986 a small excavation was done by S. T. to investigate an area of primitive-style mine-workings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Dyfed (SN816756). A small opencast and several overgrown tips associated with pebble hammers occur where the copper-rich Comet Lode outcrops on the brow of the hill. Copa Hill is within an area of seventeenth–twentieth-century lead-mine workings which extend for 1.2 km along the N side of the Ystwyth Valley (fig. 1). Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from within one of the tips suggests that mining commenced in the middle Bronze Age.

Type
Other
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , 1988 , pp. 329 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1988

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