Bryn Celli Ddu Archaeology

Over the last four years, our project in the landscape surrounding the Neolithic passage tomb of Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey, has revealed a rich landscape of prehistoric ritual monuments. New evidence has demonstrated for the first time, the incredible scale of ritual activity in this landscape. Radiocarbon dates from new excavations on a Bronze Age … Continue reading →

Rydym yn dychwelyd i gloddio yn nirwedd Bryn Celli Ddu am ein bedwerydd tymor, rhwng y 11 o Fehefin ac yr 7 o Gorffenaf. Ydych chi yn byw ar Ynys Môn, neu gogledd Cymru? Rydym yn apelio am wirfoddolwyr i ymuno efo’r prosiect. Mae’n rhad ac am ddim i fod yn rhan o’r tîm. Bydd … Continue reading →

We are returning to the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape for our fourth year of excavation between the 11 June to the 7 of July 2018. Do you live on Anglesey or in northwest Wales? We are seeking local volunteers to join our team. It’s free to take part, so we hope you’ll sign up. The … Continue reading →

We are at the end of our first week at the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project 2017, excavating in the field immediately behind the passage tomb, with a great group of volunteers. This year’s archaeological excavation started on the 11 of June and will continue until the 24 of June, and the focus has been … Continue reading →

Work has been completed on an innovative CGI film that will bring Bryn Celli Ddu back to life. Known as one of the most evocative archaeological sites in Britain, the 5,000-year old monument was once constructed to protect and pay respect to the remains of ancestors. It is the only site in Wales that has … Continue reading →

As we count down for the third season of the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project, we catch up with Angela Davies, our artist in residence about her work on SPYGLASS and her upcoming residency: Hi, I’m Angela and I’ve been artist in residence at the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project for the last three years. … Continue reading →

We are happy to say that we are returning to Bryn Celli Ddu for our third year of excavation between the 11-24 of June! It’s free to take part, so we hope you’ll sign up. The project focuses on the landscape surrounding Wales’ famous Neolithic passage tomb. During the last two years we have built … Continue reading →

As part of the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project, we have been surveying Bryn Celli Ddu itself along with it’s surrounding landscape. Adam Stanford has been busy making 3d models as part of the project, and in this post we can reveal our model of the interior of Bryn Celli Ddu. You can see the … Continue reading →

As part of the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project, we have been surveying the surrounding landscape and have identified 8 new cupmarked rock art outcrops over the last two years. Adam Stanford has been busy making 3d models of all the outcrops and we can reveal the second in a series as we countdown to … Continue reading →

As part of the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project, we have been surveying the surrounding landscape and have identified 8 new cupmarked rock art outcrops over the last two years. Adam Stanford has been busy making 3d models of all the outcrops and we can reveal the second in a series as we countdown to … Continue reading →

Bryn Celli Ddu – the Mound in the Dark Grove – is probably the best-known and best-preserved prehistoric monument on Anglesey, and is one of the most evocative archaeological sites in Britain. The monument was built in the later Neolithic around 5,000 years ago, and consists of a long passage that leads to a polygonal … Continue reading →

As part of the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project, we have been surveying the surrounding landscape and have identified 8 new cupmarked rock art outcrops over the last two years. Adam Stanford has been busy making 3d models of all the outcrops and we can reveal the first in a series as we countdown to … Continue reading →

Bryn Celli Ddu is a Neolithic passage tomb, and is a unique site in Wales – as the passage is aligned to the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. As the sun rises on this morning, a beam of light is cast down the narrow entrance lighting the chamber within. Our project has developed around this … Continue reading →

Bronze Age miniature vessels, also known as funerary cups, incense cups, pygmy cups or accessory vessels have fascinated me since I was an undergraduate. In this post, I summarise some of my thoughts about what they might have been used for, and return to thinking about their uses as shamanic objects. I have a look … Continue reading →

As part of the Parc le Breos chambered tomb artist in residence by Thomas Goddard, a film was produced by the artist. Some of the shots taken in the film are from the National Museum Wales’s Natural History displays. These add a layer of surrealism to the work. Tom wrote a blog about his use of … Continue reading →

We will be entering in to our third year at Bryn Celli Ddu in 2017. Here’s a summary of the 2016 project, published in Current Archaeology in September: Ongoing archaeological work in the landscape surrounding Anglesey’s Bryn Celli Ddu (‘the Mound in the Dark Grove’) has revealed what is thought to be a late Neolithic/early … Continue reading →

As part of our Bryn Celli Ddu project on Anglesey, we are creating an animated fly-through of the passage tomb and surrounding landscape. One of our aims is to create a digital record of the Bryn Celli Ddu passage tomb, and during the 2015 season we completed a laser scan of the monument. Here are … Continue reading →

We have returned to the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape again this year, working in the field next door to the main monument looking for the remains of a Late Neolithic/early Bronze Age cairn which was originally excavated as part of the investigations made by W. J. Hemp in the late 1920s. At the same time … Continue reading →

Writer Iain Sinclair seeks the UK’s oldest burial site in a cave along south Gower’s windy clifftops. The ‘Red Lady of Paviland’ was interred in a cave 26,000 years ago, the bones decorated with red ochre. But, as he tells Helen Mark, “she” was in fact a he, buried with jewellery and alongside a mammoth’s … Continue reading →

As part of a recent artist in residence project at Parc le Breos, we worked with the talented Aerial-Cam, Adam Stanford on making a 3D model of the monument. Parc le Breos Burial Chamber, a partly restored Neolithic chambered tomb, identified in 1937 as a Severn-Cotswold type of chambered long barrow. It was built around … Continue reading →

We’re very excited to announce that we’ll be returning to the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape on Anglesey, for the second season of our public archaeology project this June! The project will focus on the landscape surrounding one of Wales’ famous Neolithic passage tombs – Bryn Celli Ddu, exploring hidden features that have been previously overlooked.  … Continue reading →

We recently published some Bryn Celli Ddu project results in the Antiquity Journal. The results come from an electrical resistance tomography (ERT) survey of the Bryn Celli Ddu mound and its immediate surroundings. ERT is based upon the principles of resistivity, producing transects of varying depths. We surveyed half the monument, with transects at parallel 2m … Continue reading →

As part of the Bryn Celli Ddu public archaeology project in June 2015, we worked with Angela Davies, our amazing artist in residence during the excavation. It was fantastic to work with such an inspirational artist, and we are hoping we can develop some of the ideas we started last year in this year’s project. Catch … Continue reading →

The last couple of days we’ve been looking further afield, and exploring the wider landscape around the main Bryn Celli Ddu monument & the first outcrop we’ve been exploring. To our surprise and delight, we have come across 4 new rock art outcrop sites, with lots of new cupmarks. The one we are working on … Continue reading →

During the last few days the excavation has progressed, and we have made a large plan of the cupmarks on the rock art outcrop, to add to our photogrammetry and laser scan, so we have three ways of recording this surface, and later we’ll be able to compare and contrast… We have also spent some … Continue reading →

As part of the project here on Angelsey, we have been working with artists and laser scanning experts at the main passage tomb of Bryn Celli Ddu. One of our aims is to create a digital record of the Bryn Celli Ddu passage tomb, and in the last week, we have been lucky enough to … Continue reading →

The first week at the outcrop consisted of clearing and making visible the rock art on the great stone outcrop next to the Bryn Celli Ddu passage tomb. The outcrop is located north-west of the main passsage tomb, about 140 meters away. It has been previously suggested that about 28 cup marks are located here, … Continue reading →

The Bryn Celli Ddu Rock Art Project 2015 from Ffion Reynolds on Vimeo.

This exciting community archaeology project, based on Anglesey, will focus on the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape, focusing on a rock art outcrop located in a nearby field that has not been scientifically excavated. The site comprises a substantial natural outcrop, lying west of Bryn Celli Ddu tomb. The outcrop has several recently identified cupmarks on … Continue reading →

The island of Anglesey has a personality all of its own. Sheltered in the lee of Snowdonia, it is the only area of fertile and accessible land in a region of high and barren mountains. It is, therefore, not surprising that settlers have been drawn to its shores from the dawn of history. And they … Continue reading →

This circular walk visits both Tinkinswood and St Lythans Burial Chambers, in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales and gives stunning views across the Ely Valley before returning to its start in the village of St Nicholas. Before you start Distance: 9.2km (5 ¾ miles) Time: 3 ½ hours Map: OS Explorer 151 Start/Parking: St … Continue reading →

Good news from the ‘Make & Break’ team – our article on the project has been published by Routledge, in their new journal, Time & Mind: the Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. Here’s the abstract: This paper explores a community archaeology project which took place at Tinkinswood chambered tomb and its surrounding landscape in … Continue reading →

Tinkinswood and St Lythans burial chambers in the Vale of Glamorgan were once part of John Cory’s estate at Dyffryn House and Gardens, which is now part of St. Nicholas village. Cory bought the estate in 1891, which was then over 2000 acres. His family’s wealth came from the South Wales coalmines, shipping coal around the … Continue reading →

The ‘Make and Break’ project – the school outreach element of the Tinkinswood Community Archaeology Project continued in 2012, and again in 2013 with 5 schools joining in, each one producing their own performance at their local Neolithic site. To find out a bit more about the project, have a look at a previous post … Continue reading →

As part of the Tinkinswood Community Archaeology Project, we were lucky enough to work with Adam Stanford and Henry Rothwell from Digital Digging. They managed to stitch together a series of images from St Lythans burial chamber to create a photogrammetry animation of the site. Here it is: It is interesting to see St Lythans … Continue reading →

Have a look at the Western Mail article here:

Mae’r prosiect ‘Creu a Chracio’ wedi symud dros Gymru! Dewch i weld ysgol yn perfformio ger siambr gladdu lleol i chi yr haf yma! Bydd yn gyfle i’r genhedlaeth ifanc ddychmygu eu bod yn adeiladwyr siambr gladdu Neolithig, wrth iddynt ail-greu perfformiad defodol ar y safle… Ymunwch a ni… Is-lwythiwch pdf yma, a’i arddangos os … Continue reading →

This last week sees St Nicholas Primary school in the Vale of Glamorgan embarking on a journey back in time to explore and learn about the Neolithic period at Tinkinswood chambered tomb, but with a twist…. They had a chance to get into the mindset of a Neolithic tomb builder and re-create their own interpretation of a … Continue reading →

CREU A CHRACIO! Byddwn yn cynnal prosiect gyffrous ar gyfer ysgolion lleol yn Siamber Gladdu Tinkinswood diwedd mis Mawrth 2012. Bydd yn gyfle i’r genhedlaeth ifanc ddychmygu eu bod yn adeiladwyr siamber gladdu Neolithig, wrth iddynt ail-greu perfformiad defodol ar y safle… Ymunwch a ni! Is-lwythiwch pdf yma, a’i arddangos os hoffech chi: Make and Break … Continue reading →

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Happy New Year! St Lythan’s chamber, by Adam Stanford It’s been a while since we were digging at Tinkinswood and St Lythan’s, but we had an exciting and revealing time! Soon, we will be starting our outreach project, ‘Make and Break’, which will give the younger generation the chance to imagine themselves as Neolithic … Continue reading →

So, that’s it, we have finished our excavations at St Lythans! It has been an absolutely fantastic few weeks and we have found some amazing finds and discovered a lot about the monument. We have had an amazing time, have been extremely lucky with the weather (thanks to Ffion and her appeasing the weather gods!), … Continue reading →

We are in the middle of a really exciting week at St Lythans and will update the blog fully later in the week. A couple of teasers though….we have found the collapsed facade at the front of the monument complete with the rubble blocking that was placed in front of the chamber when it was … Continue reading →

We have now finished our first week at St Lythan’s, and what a week it has been! We have opened all but one of our trenches, revealing the top level of the archaeology. We’ve found out a lot about this monument’s structure and have had several interesting and exciting finds. Next week, we’ll be opening … Continue reading →

The excavations at the Tinkinswood sites ended last week. We move on to St Lythan’s Neolithic burial chamber next week, the project is not over! Very exciting times! Although we have left Tinkinswood, we will be back in March 2012 with a fantastic outreach project called ‘Make and Break’ involving two local schools. This will be … Continue reading →

It feels like its been a long time, but only two weeks ago, we didn’t really know what was going on around Tinkinswood. Now we do…. well we know that those two anomalies were NOT Neolithic… (one being later Victorian field clearnace, and the second a modest Bronze Age Barrow), enabling us to answer the … Continue reading →

Well, that’s it for Tinkinswood! It has been a really wonderful few weeks and we are so lucky to have had such a great group of people working with us. A huge thanks to everyone who came out to dig with us, we could not have done it without you! The weather has been extremely … Continue reading →

What a glorious sunny day on site, and a distinct contrast to yesterday when we had to call it a day in most of the trenches at 1pm due to flooding! Things are progressing well on site and we think we have pretty much resolved possible Cromlech 2 (in the field adjacent to Tinkinswood Farm). … Continue reading →

Excavations began around Tinkinswood this week and it’s been very exciting! We have dug trenches in the two possible fallen burial chambers, and dug some test pits in the quarry. So far we have found a number of finds. It’s still hard to tell conclusively what we are dealing with, but our knowledge of the site … Continue reading →

It’s been really busy at Tinkinswood over the past week, lots of vegetation clearance, but also lots being revealed. We are now in the last stages before the excavations begin on the 22nd of October. The excavations will be open each weekend: 29th/30th of October, and the 5th/6th of November. But now, we have another … Continue reading →

This is just a quick update about our plans to excavate at Tinkinswood. We won’t be excavating the main chamber as this has already been done under the direction of John Ward in 1914, but there are other features with high archaeological potential in a nearby field. The mystery arrangement of stones in the field … Continue reading →