Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T21:48:40.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Structured Round Cairns in West Central Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

D. K. Leighton*
Affiliation:
Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales, Edleston House, Queen's Road, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, SY23 2HP

Abstract

An assemblage of cairns, distinguished by the incorporation of orthostatic elements suggestive of ring structure, is described from an area of central Wales. The morphology and distribution of the sites are discussed in terms of geology, erosional processes and land-use history. It is concluded that the form taken by individual cairns is largely a function of local environmental constraints, their distribution limited by factors of survival and discovery. The susceptibility of the monuments to superficial modification is stressed and caution is urged in the application of classificatory schemes.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ADAS, 1980. Agricultural Development and Advisory Service, The classification of land in the hills and uplands of England and Wales. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Booklet 2358. Land-use classification maps located at ADAS, Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Bowen, D. Q., 1973. ‘The Quaternary of Wales’, in Owen, T. R. (ed.), The upper Palaeozoic and post Palaeozoic rocks of Wales.Google Scholar
Bowen, E. G. and Gresham, C. A., 1967. History of Merioneth.Google Scholar
Briggs, C. S., forthcoming. ‘The Bronze Age’ in Jones, I. G. and Smith, B. (eds), History of Cardiganshire, 1.Google Scholar
Britnell, W. E., 1982. ‘The excavation of two round barrows at Trelystan, Powys’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 48, 133201.Google Scholar
Brown, E. H., 1960. The Relief and Drainage of Wales.Google Scholar
Burgess, C., 1981. The Age of Stonehenge.Google Scholar
Burl, A., 1976. The Stone Circles of the British Isles.Google Scholar
Crew, P., 1976. Archaeology in Wales, CBA Gp 2 Newsletter, 16, 19.Google Scholar
Crew, P., 1979. Archaeology in Wales, CBA Gp 2 Newsletter, 19, 18.Google Scholar
DAT, 1977. Dyfed Archaeological Trust, Forestry and Archaeology in Dyfed.Google Scholar
DAT, 1981. Dyfed Archaeological Trust, Marginal Land Survey: Cardiganshire.Google Scholar
Davies, E., 1973. ‘Hendre and Hafod in Merioneth’, J. Mer. Hist. Rec. Soc. 7, 1328.Google Scholar
Davies, E., 1980. ‘Hafod, Hafoty and Lluest: their distribution, features and purpose’, Ceredigion 9, 142.Google Scholar
Forde, C. D., 1936. ‘A Middle Bronze Age Burial in Cardiganshire’, Bull. Board Celtic Stud. 8, 271.Google Scholar
Forde, C. D., 1938a. ‘Disgwylfa Fawr Barrow, Cardiganshire’, Trans. Cards. Ant. Soc. 8, 2223.Google Scholar
Forde, C. D., 1938b. ‘Disgwylfa Fawr Barrow, Cardiganshire’, Bull. Board Celtic Stud. 9, 188–89.Google Scholar
Forde, C. D., 1939. ‘Disgwylfa Fawr Barrow, Cardiganshire: A Food Vessel and Dug-out Trunk Cremation Burial’, Antiq. J., 19, 9092.Google Scholar
Fox, C., 1959. Life and Death in the Bronze Age.Google Scholar
George, T. N., 1961. North Wales. British Regional Geology.Google Scholar
Green, H. S., 1980. The Flint Arrowheads of the British Isles. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. 75.Google Scholar
Grimes, W. F., 1963. ‘The Stone Circles and Related Monuments of Wales’, in Foster, I. Ll. and Alcock, L. (eds), Culture and Environment: Essays in honour of Sir Cyril Fox.Google Scholar
Hampton, J. N., 1974. ‘The organisation of aerial photography in Britain’, in Wilson, D. R. (ed.), Aerial Reconnaisance for Archaeology, CBA Res. Rep. 12.Google Scholar
Hogg, A. H. A., 1978. ‘Two cairns at Aber Camddwr, near Ponterwyd, Cardiganshire’, Archaeol. Camb. 126, 2437.Google Scholar
Houlder, C. H., 1957. ‘The excavation of a barrow in Cardiganshire’, Ceredigion 3, 11–23 and 118–23.Google Scholar
Jones, O. T. and Pugh, W. J., 1935. ‘The geology of the districts around Machynlleth and Aberystwyth’, Proc. Geol. Ass. 46, 247300.Google Scholar
Leighton, D. K., 1980. ‘A stone circle and associated structures on Bryn Y Gorlan, Cardiganshire’, Archaeol. Camb. 129, 154–57.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1972. ‘Ring cairns and related monuments in Wales’, Scot. Archaeol. Forum 4, 6180.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1975. ‘The impact of the landscape on prehistoric man’, in Evans, J. G., Limbrey, S., and Cleere, H. (eds), The effect of man on the landscape: the Highland Zone 124–27. CBA Res. Rep. 11.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1979. ‘Ring cairns in Britain and Ireland: their design and purpose’, Ulster J. Archaeol. 42, 119.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1980. ‘Bronze Age Monuments in Wales’, in Taylor, A. J. (ed.), Culture and Environment in Prehistoric Wales 233–41. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. 76.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M. and Ritchie, J. N. G., 1975. ‘Kerb cairns’, in Ritchie, et al. , ‘Small cairns in Argyll: some recent work’, Proc. Soc. Ant. Soc. Scot. 106, 1538.Google Scholar
RCHME, 1980. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in England, Northamptonshire Atlas.Google Scholar
RCAHMS, 1975. Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Scotland, Argyll: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments: 2, Lorn.Google Scholar
RCAHMW, 1976. Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan, 1, part 1.Google Scholar
Roese, H. E., 1978. ‘Recent Field Observations on Neolithic and Bronze Age Monuments in South-east Wales’. Bull. Board Celtic Stud. 28, 129–32.Google Scholar
Roese, H. E., 1980. ‘Some aspects of topographical locations of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in Wales. II: Henges and Circles’, Bull. Board Celtic Stud. 29, 164–71.Google Scholar
Roese, H. E., 1981. ‘Some aspects of topographical locations of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in Wales. III: Round Cairns and Round Barrows’, Bull. Board Celtic Stud. 29, 575–88.Google Scholar
Sansbury, A. R., 1932. The Megalithic Monuments of Cardiganshire. Unpublished B.A. thesis, Dept of Geography, University College, Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Stevenson, J. B., 1975. ‘Survival and Discovery’, in Evans, J.G., Limbrey, S., and Cleere, H. (eds). The effect of man on the landscape: the Highland Zone 104–08. CBA Res. Rep. 11.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. C., 1972. ‘The study of settlement patterns in pre-Saxon Britain’, in Ucko, P. J., Tringham, R., and Dimbleby, G. W. (eds), Man, Settlement and Urbanism.Google Scholar
Taylor, J. A., 1973. ‘Chronometers and Chronicles: a study of palaeo-environments in west central Wales’, in Board, C., Chorley, R. J., Haggett, P., and Stoddart, D. R. (eds), Progress in Geography 5, 250334.Google Scholar
Williams, D. H., 1969. The Welsh Cistercians.Google Scholar
Wood, J., 1979. ‘Bedd Taliesin’, Ceredigion 8, 414–18.Google Scholar
Wynne Ffoulkes, W., 1852. ‘Tumuli, Merionethshire: 1 — Carnedd near Goleuwern, Parish of Llanegryn’, Archaeol. Camb. 3, 6568.Google Scholar