TWMBARLWM ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG 2021

The Big Dig continued from Monday 2nd till Friday 20th August

Hello again folks

Please note that I’m writing this blog from a keen amateur’s standpoint and the society’s involvement – all the technical stuff and information about any findings will come from the professional archaeologists at a later date. Their final report will be made publicly available on this website and other archaeological archive sites.

Wednesday 11th August 2021 📷   

Volunteers: Martin D., Rod H., Jessica D., Cameron I., Andrew G., Sue E., Terry E., Norman L., Bill FW., Will and Amelia

Very misty to start but soon cleared to become a dry very breezy day with showers later in afternoon.

DAY 3 of TRENCH 2

The meet at the car park and loading of equipment into the Kit-Car is now quite routine and the team were at the site of the trench by 9:45. The car is rapidly becoming the star of the show with the front bumper hanging on by a thread and the exhaust bellowing out as I struggle to guide it up the rocky path to the top – but everyone agrees that it’s better than having to manhandle all the equipment to the top every day – it is literally a tool shed on wheels.

With the trench well cleaned down it was to be a day of Richard making his precise drawings of the arrangement of the rocks while the rest of us carried on with minor tasks. A few of us continued to trowel down deeper on the outer part of the stone circle hoping to reach the natural ground level and see if there is any structure to the pile of stones.

A task that needed to be done today was to record accurately the position of the trench using the Optical Level equipment (known affectionately as the Dumpy) but when Harri and team of volunteers went to do it they found that the Twmbarlwm weather had beaten it – damp had got into the equipment and nothing could be seen through the eyepiece. Richard had to spend some time on the phone trying to locate a new Dumpy – in the end he had to order a new one from a supplier in Cardiff.

Cadw’s Will and Amelia were also on site today so there was much discussion about whether this is just a pile of stones or can we read more into the structure – one of the main theories is that this mound is simply the stones thrown up from the base of the ditch as it is being excavated, and thrown into a pile ready for more careful placement on the ramparts – much like a modern-day stone-mason might have labourers to pile up the material which he will fashion into a sturdy stone wall.

The layer of smaller rubble piled on top of the rampart follows the same pattern as we found in our first ditch on the opposite end of the bailey – so it was decided to take some auger tests from the top right hand corner of the trench, away from the trench, over the rampart, down into the ditch and beyond. These drilled holes would reveal the depth of the soil covering, the nature of the soil and also give us measurements to construct an accurate cross section of the ditch.

A few of the volunteers helped Harri with this task. The auger was hammered vertically into the ground at 1m intervals – the depth was recorded – the plug of soil was examined and salient examples retained for later analysis. One of the auger holes towards the bottom of the ditch, came up with what looked like a piece of charcoal at a depth of 70cms. This was thought to be a significant indicator of the age of the rampart and worthy of further investigation.

VIP Visitors

Later in the morning Amelia had invited two of the senior management of the Cwmcarn Forest Drive. We showed them the work being done in the trench and gave them a tour of the site – with Twmbarlwm being at the centre of the Drive they were keen to know what we were doing and looked forward to us being able to add to the knowledge of the mountain.

Meanwhile we had invited a group of local councillors to visit the site and show them our work in progress – we had previously informed the council on the work we were doing and quite a few said they would be interested in seeing what was going on.

After lunch, Norman and Sue met the group at car park 2 of the newly opened Cwmcarn Forest Drive and walked across the ridgeway with them to the Twmp – from our vantage point at the trench we were able to watch them approach all the way.

In the photo are (left to right) Will Davies (Cadw), Phillipa Marsden (Leader of the Council), Cllr Bob Owen, Risca West, Cllr Nigel George (Cabinet Member for Waste, Public Protection and Street Scene),  Norman Liversuch (CTS) , Cllr Andrew Whitcome (Cabinet Member for Sustainability and Planning), Sue Evans (CTS), Dewi Thomas (Project Manager, Parks and Leisure), and Cllr Ross Whiting (Cabinet Member for Learning and Leisure).

When they arrived at the Twmp Will of Cadw and Terry (Chair of CTS) gave them a talk on the works of CTS and Cadw’s interest and involvement in the archaeology of Twmbarlwm and how this project would be beneficial to the promotion of Twmbarlwm as part of the major tourist resource of Cwmcarn Forest Drive and the surrounding area.

They were then shown the work being done in the trench and around the entire perimeter of the bailey – the weather turned very cold during the councillors’ visit but fair dos they soldiered on despite having a long walk back to their cars at the end. All the councillors were local people with a strong interest in the area and were intrigued to discover more about the history of the mountain. Of course, we had the compulsory group photo at the end of the visit.

With all the visitors today it enabled Richard to get on with his notes – but it also meant a later than usual finish for us today – so it was with a great deal of relief when I bounced back down the hill in the trusty old kit-car.

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This archaeological investigation is funded by:
Ariennir yr ymchwiliad archeolegol hwn gan: