Parc Cwm long cairn
Encyclopedia
Parc Cwm long cairn also known as Parc le Breos burial chamber , is a partly restored Neolithic
chambered tomb
, identified in 1937 as a Severn-Cotswold
type of chambered long barrow
. The cromlech
, a megalith
ic burial chamber, was built around 5850 years before present (BP)
, during the early Neolithic. It is about seven miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea
, Wales, in what is now known as Coed y Parc Cwm at Parc le Breos
, on the Gower Peninsula
.
A trapezoid
al cairn
of rubble – the upper part of the cromlech and its earth covering now removed – about 72 feet (22 m) long by 43 feet (13 m) (at its widest), is revetted
by a low dry-stone
wall. A bell-shaped, south-facing forecourt, formed by the wall, leads to a central passageway lined with limestone
slabs set on end. Human remains had been placed in the two pairs of stone chambers that lead from the passageway. Corpses may have been placed in nearby caves until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb.
The cromlech was discovered in 1869 by workmen digging for road stone. An excavation later that year revealed human bones (now known to have belonged to at least 40 people), animal remains, and Neolithic pottery
. Samples from the site show the tomb to have been in use for between 300 and 800 years. North-West Europe
an lifestyles changed around 6000 BP, from the nomadic lives of the hunter-gatherer
, to a settled life of agricultural farming
: the Neolithic Revolution
. However, analysis of the human remains found at Parc Cwm long cairn show the people interred in the cromlech continued to be either hunter-gatherers or herders
, rather than agricultural farmers.
Parc Cwm long cairn lies in a former medieval deer park
, established in the 1220s CE
by the Marcher Lord of Gower
as Parc le Breos – an enclosed area of about 2000 acres (809.4 ha), now mainly farmland. The cromlech is on the floor of a dry narrow limestone gorge
containing about 500 acres (2 km²) of woodland. Free pedestrian access is via an asphalt
track leading from the park's entrance, which has free parking for 12–15 cars about 250 yards (228.6 m) from the site. Parc Cwm long cairn is maintained by Cadw
, the Welsh Assembly Government
's historic environment division.
From the end of the last ice age
(between 12,000 and 10,000 BP
) Mesolithic
hunter-gatherer
s began to migrate
northwards from Central Europe
; the area that would become known as Wales was free of glaciers by about 10,250 BP. At that time sea levels were much lower than today, and the shallower parts of what is now the North Sea
were dry land. The east coast of present day England and the coasts of present day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands were connected by the former landmass known as Doggerland
, forming the British Peninsula on the European mainland. The post-glacial rise in sea level separated Wales and Ireland, forming the Irish Sea
. Doggerland was submerged by the North Sea and, by 8000 BP, the British Peninsula had become an island. By the beginning of the Neolithic (6,000 BP) sea levels in the Bristol Channel
were still about 33 feet (10 m) lower than today. Historian John Davies
has theorised that the story of Cantre'r Gwaelod's drowning, and tales in the Mabinogion
of the water between Wales and Ireland
being narrower and shallower, may be distant folk memories of that time. The warmer climate caused major changes to the flora
and fauna
of Great Britain
, and encouraged the growth of dense forest that covered 80–90% of the island.
Human lifestyles in North-West Europe
changed around 6000 BP; from the Mesolithic
(Middle Stone Age) nomadic lives of hunting and gathering
, to the Neolithic (New Stone Age) agrarian
life of agriculture and settlement. John Davies notes that such a transformation cannot have been developed by the people living in North-West Europe independently, as neither the grain necessary for crops nor the animals suitable for domestication are indigenous to the area. Recent genetic studies conclude that these cultural changes were introduced to Britain by farmers migrating from the European mainland. They cleared the forests to establish pasture and to cultivate the land, developed new technologies such as ceramics and textile production, and used a similar tradition of long barrow
construction that began in continental Europe during the 7th millennium BP
– the free standing megalithic structures supporting a sloping capstone (known as dolmen
s), common across Atlantic Europe
that were, according to John Davies, "the first substantial, permanent constructions of man". Such massive constructions would have needed a large labour force (up to 200 men) suggestive of large communities nearby. However, in his contribution to History of Wales, 25,000 BC AD 2000, archaeologist
Joshua Pollard
notes that not all Neolithic communities were part of the simultaneous "marked transformations in material culture, ideology and technical practices" known as the Neolithic Revolution
.
or Cotswold-Severn group. Excavations show these tombs to have been built on sites that had already "gained some significance". Archaeologist Julian Thomas
theorises that these sites may have been "very long-lived woodland clearances" that had become landmarks and meeting-places.
Constructed during the Neolithic, cairns in the Severn-Cotswold tradition share several characteristics: an elongated trapezoidal (or wedge) shape up to 328 feet (100 m) long; a cairn
(a mound of deliberately placed stones or rocks erected as a memorial or marker); a revetment
(retaining wall) of carefully constructed dry-stone walling that also defines a horned forecourt at the widest end; huge capstones supported by orthostats; and a chamber (or chambers) in which human remains were placed, accessible after the cairn was completed by way of a gallery (passageway). Diverse internal transept chamber
plans exist within the group. The earlier tombs contained multiple chambers set laterally, or pairs of transept chambers leading from a central passageway; the later, terminally chambered tombs, contained a single chamber.
As the name implies, Severn-Cotswold cairns are concentrated mainly to the east of the River Severn
, in and around the Cotswolds
, in present-day England. However, similar Severn-Cotswold type structures have been identified in south east Wales – between Brecon
, the Gower Peninsula and Gwent
– and in Capel Garmon
(near Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, north Wales), Wayland's Smithy
(Oxfordshire, England) and Avebury
(Wiltshire, England). As well as monuments to house and to honour their departed ancestors, these cromlechs may have been communal and ceremonial sites where, according to archaeologist Francis Pryor
, people met "to socialise, to meet new partners, to acquire fresh livestock and to exchange ceremonial gifts".
Parc Cwm long cairn is one of six chambered tombs discovered on the Gower Peninsula and one of 17 in what is now known as Glamorgan
. Severn-Cotswold cairns are the oldest surviving examples of architecture in Great Britain – Parc Cwm long cairn was built about 1,500 to 1,300 years before either Stonehenge
or the Great Pyramid of Giza
, Egypt was completed.
The megalithic cromlech
at Parc le Breos Cwm, known as Parc Cwm long cairn , is a Severn-Cotswold type chambered tomb, built around 5850 BP (during the early Neolithic) in what is now known as the Gower Peninsula – about eight miles (13 km) west of Swansea, Wales, and about miles (2 km) north of the Bristol Channel. Alternative names include Parc le Breos burial chamber , the Long Cairn and the Giant's Grave.
The cromlech consists of a north–south aligned long mound of locally obtained rocks and cobbles, mainly of limestone, revetted
by two coursed
, dry-stone kerbs of "a fine standard". The inner wall was built using a heavier stone. Trapezoid
-shaped and about 72 feet (22 m) long, the cromlech tapers from 43 feet (13 m) wide at its southern entrance to about 20 feet (6 m) at its northern end. The wall at the front, right section, is missing or has collapsed, and the rubble has tumbled out leaving a previously covered orthostat exposed.
At the entrance to the tomb the kerbs sweep inwards to form a pair of deep protrusions, or horns, forming a narrow bell-shaped forecourt. A straight central passageway (or gallery), 21 feet (6 m) long by 3 foot (0.9144 m) wide, orientated north–south, leads from the forecourt into the cairn. Each side of the passageway is lined with thin limestone
slabs known as orthostats, placed on end and up to 5 feet (1.5 m) high with a coursed dry-stone infill between the slabs. Two pairs of rectangular transept chambers
lead from the passageway, averaging feet (1.6 m), east–west, by feet (1.0 m); or "6 ft by 2 ft", according to Archaeologia Cambrensis
in 1886. Each, except the south west chamber, has shallow limestone sillstones at its entrance.
Archaeologist R J C Atkinson
believed that (unusually among cairns in the Severn-Cotswold tradition) Parc Cwm long cairn had been built beside a stream that now flows underground. He noted that the stones on the eastern side had "marked signs of erosion and rounding by silt-laden flood-water".
Originally, the transept chambers would have been covered with one large (or several smaller) capstones, enclosing the chambers containing human remains. The earth covering and the upper part of the cromlech have been removed, leaving the passageway and lateral chambers fully exposed. There is no record of a capstone having been discovered.
and Hussey Vivian
excavated it that year, believing it to be a round barrow
. The excavation revealed human bones that were "much broken and in no regular arrangement", animal remains ("deer and swine's teeth"), and sherds of "plain Western Neolithic pottery". The bones, initially thought to heve been disturbed by repeated access or subsequent interments, were at first thought to be from 20–24 individuals, all of whom except three were adults. Archaeologists Alasdair Whittle
and Michael Wysocki note that such estimates were commonly based on the "numbers of skulls or mandibles", and recent analysis has shown the bones to be from at least 40 individuals. Following the excavation, most of the human remains were reburied in clay pots beneath their original contexts
, some are held in the Ashmolean Museum
, University of Oxford
, England – with the animal and pottery remains – and the whereabouts of the remainder are unrecorded.
An excavation led by Professor Glyn Daniel
in 1937 identified the site as a chambered long barrow
. However, more recently, long barrow
s have been defined as having long earthen mounds with wooden internal structures, whereas chambered tombs
, while also being covered by a long mound, have internal chambers built of stone. No long barrows with wooden internal structures have been identified in southeast Wales, perhaps because long barrows were usually built where there was no suitable stone.
At Parc Cwm long cairn a variety of mortuary practices was evident and the deliberate ordering of skeletal parts noticeable. Whittle and Wysocki (1998) note cremated human remains were placed only in the front, right (south, east – or SE) chamber, where females and males, and all age ranges were represented. The SE chamber was also unusual in that it contained nearly three times as many individuals as in each of the other chambers, which contained the remains of all representative groups except younger children and infants. At the forecourt entrance Atkinson recorded finds, deposited in groups, including: flint debitage
, lithic core
s and a bladelet (burnt and unburnt); a leaf-shaped arrowhead (burnt); pieces of quartz
; pieces of stalactite
(now missing); sherds of Neolithic pottery; and cremated bone fragments. Atkinson speculated that the stalactite originated from Cat Hole cave, which (along with Tooth Hole cave) Whittle and Wysocki note as a possible source of the quartz too.
Following the excavation led by R J C Atkinson
in 1960, the cromlech was placed under the guardianship of the then Ministry of Public Building and Works
and, in 1961, was partly restored. Atkinson made "minimal" excavation records, and no report of it was published until Whittle and Wysocki's detailed report in 1998. In it, they suggest that corpses may have been placed in caves near the cromlech until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb, a process known as excarnation
.
Few human remains survive in Great Britain from the early Neolithic (c. 6400–c. 5850 BP), although they are comparatively well preserved in the Black Mountains
, the Gower Peninsula and the Vale of Glamorgan
where up to 50 individuals have been interred – men, women and children – in each cromlech.
The skeletal remains of over 40 individuals were recovered from the cromlech at Parc le Breos Cwm, some of which showed evidence of weathering and of biting and gnawing by animals. This suggests the corpses lay exposed to decompose and were interred in the burial chambers defleshed, as parcels of bone. Skeletal remains from the passageway were part–articulated, showing no sign of animal scavenging, suggesting they were placed in the cromlech as fleshed corpses. Whittle and Wysocki note that among the human remains are the bones of "8 dogs, a cat, a red deer, pig, sheep and cattle". They speculate that the two caves near the cromlech were used as depositories for the corpses prior to decomposition, and that when the bones were collected from the caves for reinterment others already lying in the cave were unwittingly gathered too.
Radiocarbon dated
samples from the cromlech show the tomb was accessed by many generations over a period of 300–800 years, and that the human bones are the disarticulated remains (i.e., not complete skeletons) of at least 40 individuals: male and female adults, adolescents, children, and infants. One of the red deer bones has been radiocarbon dated to between 2750 BP and 2150 BP, showing that at least some of the bones entered long after the site had been deserted.
Prior to the publication of Whittle and Wysocki's 1998 report, bones and teeth of the mortuary population of Parc Cwm long cairn were re-examined for indications of lifestyle and diet.
Musculoskeletal analysis showed significant gender lifestyle variation. Greater leg muscle development was found in males of the Parc Cwm cromlech, possibly the result of hunting or herding, confirming the sexual dimorphism
found in previous analyses of the remains. In contrast, no such variation was noticeable in the remains found during excavations from other nearby sites, for example the Tinkinswood burial chamber
, in the Vale of Glamorgan. The variation in musculoskeletal stress markers may indicate a mobile lifestyle for at least some of the males analysed.
Evidence obtained from stable isotope analysis
shows plant foods, including cereals, formed only a small proportion of their dietary protein. The majority derived from animals – i.e., meat, and milk or blood – and contained none from marine
sources.
Remains of human teeth were analysed for evidence of arrested development and decay
. Arrested development implies periods of nutritional shortage, which could indicate failed harvests. Decay implies either periods of food shortage, or a diet consisting of high proportions of carbohydrate
or softer cooked meat, or both. Dental analyses showed no sign of periods of decay or arrested development, even where there was "considerable wear", indicating a lifestyle that was not dependent on farming cereals. The 1887 bone report notes the "good condition of the teeth". Whittle and Wysocki noted the "slight" presence of tartar
, and that only one tooth had been lost before death, a mandibular incisor
.
Whittle and Wysocki conclude, from the skeletal and dental analyses, that the lifestyles of the people who were to be interred in the cromlech either continued to be one of hunting and gathering or, more likely, a pastoral life of herding, rather than one of agrarian-based farming.
The Cathole Cave, Cat Hole Cave or Cathole Rock Cave, is a steep limestone outcrop
, about 200 yards (183 m) north of the cromlech along the Parc le Breos Cwm valley and near the top of the gorge, about 50 feet (15.2 m) from the valley floor. The cave is a deep triangular fissure penetrating the hillside and narrowing towards the top. It has two entrances, with a natural platform outside the larger of the two.
The cave was used as a shelter by bands of Mesolithic
hunters and as a Neolithic ossuary
. During the first excavation of the cave in 1864, finds were made only from the Mesolithic to medieval periods. In his "The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society vol.25 (1959), pp. 260–69", archaeologist Charles McBurney notes that "In the Post Glacial period the cave was much used by Mesolithic hunters"; a conclusion confirmed by John Campbell's excavation of 1977.
A 1984 excavation by Aldhouse-Green revealed the earliest finds from the cave, two tanged points
that may date to c. 28,000 BP, an interglacial
period during the Late Pleistocene
roughly contemporaneous with the Red Lady of Paviland
. The "lady" was discovered in a cave between Port Eynon and Rhossili, about eight miles (13 km) west of Cathole Cave, and has been radiocarbon dated to c. 29,000 BP, the oldest known human burial in Great Britain.
Late glacial tool
finds from the Upper Palaeolithic date to c. 12,000 BP: flint
blades known as Cheddar points
; smaller bladelets known as Cresswell points
; scrapers
; burins or lithic flake
s; flint and bone awls; and a bone needle. Flint rarely occurs in Wales other than in drifts, or as small pebbles on beaches. Flint tools would therefore have to have been brought to the Gower Peninsula from other areas such as those now known as southern or eastern England, or Antrim
, either as finished tools or as incomplete, or unworked, nodules
. Remains of Red Fox
, Arctic Fox
, Brown Bear
, Tundra Vole
, and possibly reindeer
, were found at the same level as the Upper Palaeolithic tools, providing evidence of the climate c. 12,000 BP. Other animal remains excavated during the 19th century, which may predate the Late glacial finds, include mammoth
, woolly rhinoceros
, Red Deer
and Giant Deer
.
Several finds date to the Bronze Age
, including a bronze socketed axe, two human skeletons, and sherds of pottery from burial urns and other vessels.
. Other contemporary finds, now held at the Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales
, Cardiff
, include collared urn pottery, flaked knives, a scraper, flint flakes, a bone spatula, a needle and bead, and animal bones – the remains of domesticated animals, including cat and dog. Whittle and Wysocki note that this period of occupation may be "significant", with respect to Parc Cwm long cairn, as it is "broadly contemporary with the secondary use of the tomb".
The Neolithic cromlech at Parc le Breos is about seven miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea
, Wales, near the centre of the Gower Peninsula
, midway between the villages of Llanrhidian and Bishopston
. Its nearest village is Parkmill
, a small rural settlement about one mile (1.5 km) to the south–east.
Parc Cwm long cairn lies on the floor of a dry, narrow, limestone gorge
, at an elevation
of about 50 feet (15.2 m) above sea level
, less than miles (2 km) from the south coast of the Gower Peninsula. It is in about 500 acres (202.3 ha) of woodland called Coed y Parc, the remnants of a former medieval deer park
(Parc le Breos) from which the cromlech derives its alternative name: Parc le Breos burial chamber. Established as an enclosed area of about 2000 acres (809.4 ha) by John de Braose
, Marcher Lord of Gower, in about 1221–32 CE, the park is now mainly farmland. A 19th-century hunting lodge about 1200 yards (1.1 km) north–east of Parc Cwm long cairn has been converted into a hotel and pony trekking (horse riding) centre called Parc le Breos.
Coed y Parc is owned and managed by Forestry Commission Wales
. The site is open to the public free of charge and has parking for 12–15 cars about 750 feet (228.6 m) away. Facing the car park on the opposite side of the lane, a kissing gate
allows wheelchair access to a level asphalt track running past the cromlech down the length of the gorge, passing within about 10 feet (3 m) of the cairn. Parc Cwm long cairn is maintained by Cadw
(to keep), the Welsh Assembly Government
's historic environment division.
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
chambered tomb
Chamber tomb
A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one...
, identified in 1937 as a Severn-Cotswold
Severn-Cotswold tomb
Severn-Cotswold is a name given to a type of Megalithic chamber tomb built by Neolithic peoples in Wales and South West England around 3500 BC.-Description:...
type of chambered long barrow
Chambered long barrow
Chambered long barrows are a type of megalithic burial monument found in the British Isles in the Neolithic.Long barrows either contained wooden or stone burial structures beneath the barrow and the surviving megalithic stone in the latter means that they are the ones referred to by archaeologists...
. The cromlech
Cromlech
Cromlech is a Brythonic word used to describe prehistoric megalithic structures, where crom means "bent" and llech means "flagstone". The term is now virtually obsolete in archaeology, but remains in use as a colloquial term for two different types of megalithic monument.In English it usually...
, a megalith
Megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Megalithic describes structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.The word 'megalith' comes from the Ancient...
ic burial chamber, was built around 5850 years before present (BP)
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
, during the early Neolithic. It is about seven miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Wales, in what is now known as Coed y Parc Cwm at Parc le Breos
Parc le Breos
Parc le Breos was a great medieval deer park in the south of the Gower Peninsula, about eight miles west of Swansea, Wales, and about 1¼ miles north of the Bristol Channel. The park was an enclosed, oval area of in circumference, covering about and measuring miles by just over miles...
, on the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
.
A trapezoid
Trapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...
al cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
of rubble – the upper part of the cromlech and its earth covering now removed – about 72 feet (22 m) long by 43 feet (13 m) (at its widest), is revetted
Revetment
Revetments, or revêtements , have a variety of meanings in architecture, engineering and art history. In stream restoration, river engineering or coastal management, they are sloping structures placed on banks or cliffs in such a way as to absorb the energy of incoming water...
by a low dry-stone
Dry stone
Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully selected interlocking...
wall. A bell-shaped, south-facing forecourt, formed by the wall, leads to a central passageway lined with limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
slabs set on end. Human remains had been placed in the two pairs of stone chambers that lead from the passageway. Corpses may have been placed in nearby caves until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb.
The cromlech was discovered in 1869 by workmen digging for road stone. An excavation later that year revealed human bones (now known to have belonged to at least 40 people), animal remains, and Neolithic pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
. Samples from the site show the tomb to have been in use for between 300 and 800 years. North-West Europe
North-West Europe
North-West Europe is a term that refers to a northern area of Western Europe, although the exact area or countries it comprises varies.-Geographic definition:...
an lifestyles changed around 6000 BP, from the nomadic lives of the hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
, to a settled life of agricultural farming
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
: the Neolithic Revolution
Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution was the first agricultural revolution. It was the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and settlement. Archaeological data indicates that various forms of plants and animal domestication evolved independently in 6 separate locations worldwide circa...
. However, analysis of the human remains found at Parc Cwm long cairn show the people interred in the cromlech continued to be either hunter-gatherers or herders
Pastoralism
Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and...
, rather than agricultural farmers.
Parc Cwm long cairn lies in a former medieval deer park
Medieval deer park
A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.-History:...
, established in the 1220s CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
by the Marcher Lord of Gower
Gower (Lordship)
thumb|350px|right|Map of the Lordship, showing the area detached , the area added and the Town and Franchise of Swansea. The language boundary is shown as a dotted line....
as Parc le Breos – an enclosed area of about 2000 acres (809.4 ha), now mainly farmland. The cromlech is on the floor of a dry narrow limestone gorge
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
containing about 500 acres (2 km²) of woodland. Free pedestrian access is via an asphalt
Asphalt concrete
Asphalt concrete is a composite material commonly used in construction projects such as road surfaces, airports and parking lots. It consists of asphalt and mineral aggregate mixed together, then laid down in layers and compacted...
track leading from the park's entrance, which has free parking for 12–15 cars about 250 yards (228.6 m) from the site. Parc Cwm long cairn is maintained by Cadw
Cadw
-Conservation and Protection:Many of Wales's great castles and other monuments, such as bishop's palaces, historic houses, and ruined abbeys, are now in Cadw's care. Cadw does not own them but is responsible for their upkeep and for making them accessible to the public...
, the Welsh Assembly Government
Welsh Assembly Government
The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. It is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, the legislature which represents the interests of the people of Wales and makes laws for Wales...
's historic environment division.
History
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
(between 12,000 and 10,000 BP
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
) Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s began to migrate
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
northwards from Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
; the area that would become known as Wales was free of glaciers by about 10,250 BP. At that time sea levels were much lower than today, and the shallower parts of what is now the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
were dry land. The east coast of present day England and the coasts of present day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands were connected by the former landmass known as Doggerland
Doggerland
Doggerland is a name given by archaeologists and geologists to a former landmass in the southern North Sea that connected the island of Great Britain to mainland Europe during and after the last Ice Age, surviving until about 6,500 or 6,200 BCE, though gradually being swallowed by rising sea levels...
, forming the British Peninsula on the European mainland. The post-glacial rise in sea level separated Wales and Ireland, forming the Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
. Doggerland was submerged by the North Sea and, by 8000 BP, the British Peninsula had become an island. By the beginning of the Neolithic (6,000 BP) sea levels in the Bristol Channel
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...
were still about 33 feet (10 m) lower than today. Historian John Davies
John Davies (historian)
John Davies is a Welsh historian, and a television and radio broadcaster.Davies was born in the Rhondda, Wales, and studied at both University College, Cardiff, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is married with four children...
has theorised that the story of Cantre'r Gwaelod's drowning, and tales in the Mabinogion
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
of the water between Wales and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
being narrower and shallower, may be distant folk memories of that time. The warmer climate caused major changes to the flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
and fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, and encouraged the growth of dense forest that covered 80–90% of the island.
Human lifestyles in North-West Europe
North-West Europe
North-West Europe is a term that refers to a northern area of Western Europe, although the exact area or countries it comprises varies.-Geographic definition:...
changed around 6000 BP; from the Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
(Middle Stone Age) nomadic lives of hunting and gathering
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
, to the Neolithic (New Stone Age) agrarian
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
life of agriculture and settlement. John Davies notes that such a transformation cannot have been developed by the people living in North-West Europe independently, as neither the grain necessary for crops nor the animals suitable for domestication are indigenous to the area. Recent genetic studies conclude that these cultural changes were introduced to Britain by farmers migrating from the European mainland. They cleared the forests to establish pasture and to cultivate the land, developed new technologies such as ceramics and textile production, and used a similar tradition of long barrow
Long barrow
A long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period. They are rectangular or trapezoidal tumuli or earth mounds traditionally interpreted as collective tombs...
construction that began in continental Europe during the 7th millennium BP
5th millennium BC
The 5th millennium BC saw the spread of agriculture from the Near East throughout southern and central Europe.Urban cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia flourished, developing the wheel. Copper ornaments became more common, marking the Chalcolithic. Animal husbandry spread throughout Eurasia,...
– the free standing megalithic structures supporting a sloping capstone (known as dolmen
Dolmen
A dolmen—also known as a portal tomb, portal grave, dolmain , cromlech , anta , Hünengrab/Hünenbett , Adamra , Ispun , Hunebed , dös , goindol or quoit—is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of...
s), common across Atlantic Europe
Atlantic Europe
Atlantic Europe is a geographical and anthropological term for the western portion of Europe which borders the Atlantic Ocean. The term may refer to the idea of Atlantic Europe as a cultural unit and/or as an biogeographical region....
that were, according to John Davies, "the first substantial, permanent constructions of man". Such massive constructions would have needed a large labour force (up to 200 men) suggestive of large communities nearby. However, in his contribution to History of Wales, 25,000 BC AD 2000, archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
Joshua Pollard
Joshua Pollard
Dr Joshua Pollard FSA is a British archaeologist, who is currently Senior Lecturer and Head of Archaeology at the University of Bristol. He gained his BA and PhD in Archaeology from the Cardiff University, and has specialised in the archaeology of the Neolithic period in the UK and north-west...
notes that not all Neolithic communities were part of the simultaneous "marked transformations in material culture, ideology and technical practices" known as the Neolithic Revolution
Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution was the first agricultural revolution. It was the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and settlement. Archaeological data indicates that various forms of plants and animal domestication evolved independently in 6 separate locations worldwide circa...
.
Severn-Cotswold tombs
The cromlech at Parc le Breos Cwm is one of 120–30 sites identified as belonging to the category of long barrow tomb known as the Severn-CotswoldSevern-Cotswold tomb
Severn-Cotswold is a name given to a type of Megalithic chamber tomb built by Neolithic peoples in Wales and South West England around 3500 BC.-Description:...
or Cotswold-Severn group. Excavations show these tombs to have been built on sites that had already "gained some significance". Archaeologist Julian Thomas
Julian Thomas
Julian Stewart Thomas is a British archaeologist, publishing widely on the Neolithic and Bronze Age prehistory of Britain and north-west Europe...
theorises that these sites may have been "very long-lived woodland clearances" that had become landmarks and meeting-places.
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
(a mound of deliberately placed stones or rocks erected as a memorial or marker); a revetment
Revetment
Revetments, or revêtements , have a variety of meanings in architecture, engineering and art history. In stream restoration, river engineering or coastal management, they are sloping structures placed on banks or cliffs in such a way as to absorb the energy of incoming water...
(retaining wall) of carefully constructed dry-stone walling that also defines a horned forecourt at the widest end; huge capstones supported by orthostats; and a chamber (or chambers) in which human remains were placed, accessible after the cairn was completed by way of a gallery (passageway). Diverse internal transept chamber
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
plans exist within the group. The earlier tombs contained multiple chambers set laterally, or pairs of transept chambers leading from a central passageway; the later, terminally chambered tombs, contained a single chamber.
As the name implies, Severn-Cotswold cairns are concentrated mainly to the east of the River Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
, in and around the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
, in present-day England. However, similar Severn-Cotswold type structures have been identified in south east Wales – between Brecon
Brecon
Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
, the Gower Peninsula and Gwent
Gwent (county)
Gwent is a preserved county and a former local government county in south-east Wales. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was named after the ancient Kingdom of Gwent....
– and in Capel Garmon
Capel Garmon
Capel Garmon is a village near Betws-y-Coed in the county borough of Conwy, north Wales. It is situated high above the Conwy valley, in the community of Bro Garmon, and commands views over Snowdonia...
(near Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, north Wales), Wayland's Smithy
Wayland's Smithy
Wayland's Smithy is a Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb site located near the Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle, at Ashbury in the English county of Oxfordshire ....
(Oxfordshire, England) and Avebury
Avebury
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles which is located around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, south west England. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain...
(Wiltshire, England). As well as monuments to house and to honour their departed ancestors, these cromlechs may have been communal and ceremonial sites where, according to archaeologist Francis Pryor
Francis Pryor
thumb|180px|Francis Pryor discusses the excavation during the filming of a 2007 dig for [[Time Team]] with series editor Michael Douglas ....
, people met "to socialise, to meet new partners, to acquire fresh livestock and to exchange ceremonial gifts".
Parc Cwm long cairn is one of six chambered tombs discovered on the Gower Peninsula and one of 17 in what is now known as Glamorgan
Glamorgan
Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...
. Severn-Cotswold cairns are the oldest surviving examples of architecture in Great Britain – Parc Cwm long cairn was built about 1,500 to 1,300 years before either Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
or the Great Pyramid of Giza
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact...
, Egypt was completed.
Features
Cromlech
Cromlech is a Brythonic word used to describe prehistoric megalithic structures, where crom means "bent" and llech means "flagstone". The term is now virtually obsolete in archaeology, but remains in use as a colloquial term for two different types of megalithic monument.In English it usually...
at Parc le Breos Cwm, known as Parc Cwm long cairn , is a Severn-Cotswold type chambered tomb, built around 5850 BP (during the early Neolithic) in what is now known as the Gower Peninsula – about eight miles (13 km) west of Swansea, Wales, and about miles (2 km) north of the Bristol Channel. Alternative names include Parc le Breos burial chamber , the Long Cairn and the Giant's Grave.
The cromlech consists of a north–south aligned long mound of locally obtained rocks and cobbles, mainly of limestone, revetted
Revetment
Revetments, or revêtements , have a variety of meanings in architecture, engineering and art history. In stream restoration, river engineering or coastal management, they are sloping structures placed on banks or cliffs in such a way as to absorb the energy of incoming water...
by two coursed
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
, dry-stone kerbs of "a fine standard". The inner wall was built using a heavier stone. Trapezoid
Trapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...
-shaped and about 72 feet (22 m) long, the cromlech tapers from 43 feet (13 m) wide at its southern entrance to about 20 feet (6 m) at its northern end. The wall at the front, right section, is missing or has collapsed, and the rubble has tumbled out leaving a previously covered orthostat exposed.
At the entrance to the tomb the kerbs sweep inwards to form a pair of deep protrusions, or horns, forming a narrow bell-shaped forecourt. A straight central passageway (or gallery), 21 feet (6 m) long by 3 foot (0.9144 m) wide, orientated north–south, leads from the forecourt into the cairn. Each side of the passageway is lined with thin limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
slabs known as orthostats, placed on end and up to 5 feet (1.5 m) high with a coursed dry-stone infill between the slabs. Two pairs of rectangular transept chambers
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
lead from the passageway, averaging feet (1.6 m), east–west, by feet (1.0 m); or "6 ft by 2 ft", according to Archaeologia Cambrensis
Archaeologia Cambrensis
Archaeologia Cambrensis is an archaeological and historical scholarly journal, published annually in Wales by the Cambrian Archaeological Association, containing excavation reports, book reviews, and historical essays...
in 1886. Each, except the south west chamber, has shallow limestone sillstones at its entrance.
Archaeologist R J C Atkinson
Richard J. C. Atkinson
Richard John Copland Atkinson CBE was a British prehistorian and archaeologist.-Biography:He was born in Evershot, Dorset and went to Sherborne School and then Magdalen College, Oxford, reading PPE...
believed that (unusually among cairns in the Severn-Cotswold tradition) Parc Cwm long cairn had been built beside a stream that now flows underground. He noted that the stones on the eastern side had "marked signs of erosion and rounding by silt-laden flood-water".
Originally, the transept chambers would have been covered with one large (or several smaller) capstones, enclosing the chambers containing human remains. The earth covering and the upper part of the cromlech have been removed, leaving the passageway and lateral chambers fully exposed. There is no record of a capstone having been discovered.
Excavation
Workmen digging for road stone discovered the site in 1869. John LubbockJohn Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury PC , FRS , known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was a polymath and Liberal Member of Parliament....
and Hussey Vivian
Hussey Vivian, 3rd Baron Vivian
Hussey Crespigny Vivian, 3rd Baron Vivian, GCMG, CB, DL, FRGS was a British diplomat.Born at Connaught Place, London, Vivian was the eldest son of Charles Vivian, 2nd Baron Vivian and was educated at Eton College...
excavated it that year, believing it to be a round barrow
Round barrow
Round barrows are one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe they are found in many parts of the world because of their simple construction and universal purpose....
. The excavation revealed human bones that were "much broken and in no regular arrangement", animal remains ("deer and swine's teeth"), and sherds of "plain Western Neolithic pottery". The bones, initially thought to heve been disturbed by repeated access or subsequent interments, were at first thought to be from 20–24 individuals, all of whom except three were adults. Archaeologists Alasdair Whittle
Alasdair Whittle
Alasdair W. R. Whittle FLSW FBA is Distinguished Research Professor in Archaeology at Cardiff University, specialising in the Neolithic period.He is also a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.- Publications :...
and Michael Wysocki note that such estimates were commonly based on the "numbers of skulls or mandibles", and recent analysis has shown the bones to be from at least 40 individuals. Following the excavation, most of the human remains were reburied in clay pots beneath their original contexts
Archaeological context
In archaeology, not only the context of a discovery is a significant fact, but the formation of the context is as well. An archaeological context is an event in time which has been preserved in the archaeological record. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, whilst the material...
, some are held in the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
, University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, England – with the animal and pottery remains – and the whereabouts of the remainder are unrecorded.
Glyn Daniel
Glyn Edmund Daniel was a Welsh scientist and archaeologist whose academic career at Cambridge University specialised in the European Neolithic period. He edited the academic journal Antiquity from 1958–1985...
in 1937 identified the site as a chambered long barrow
Chambered long barrow
Chambered long barrows are a type of megalithic burial monument found in the British Isles in the Neolithic.Long barrows either contained wooden or stone burial structures beneath the barrow and the surviving megalithic stone in the latter means that they are the ones referred to by archaeologists...
. However, more recently, long barrow
Long barrow
A long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period. They are rectangular or trapezoidal tumuli or earth mounds traditionally interpreted as collective tombs...
s have been defined as having long earthen mounds with wooden internal structures, whereas chambered tombs
Chamber tomb
A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one...
, while also being covered by a long mound, have internal chambers built of stone. No long barrows with wooden internal structures have been identified in southeast Wales, perhaps because long barrows were usually built where there was no suitable stone.
At Parc Cwm long cairn a variety of mortuary practices was evident and the deliberate ordering of skeletal parts noticeable. Whittle and Wysocki (1998) note cremated human remains were placed only in the front, right (south, east – or SE) chamber, where females and males, and all age ranges were represented. The SE chamber was also unusual in that it contained nearly three times as many individuals as in each of the other chambers, which contained the remains of all representative groups except younger children and infants. At the forecourt entrance Atkinson recorded finds, deposited in groups, including: flint debitage
Debitage
The term debitage refers to all the waste material produced during lithic reduction and the production of chipped stone tools. This assemblage includes, but is not limited to, different kinds of lithic flakes, shatter, and production errors and rejects....
, lithic core
Lithic core
In archaeology, a lithic core is a distinctive artifact that results from the practice of lithic reduction. In this sense, a core is the scarred nucleus resulting from the detachment of one or more flakes from a lump of source material or tool stone, usually by using a hard hammer percussor such...
s and a bladelet (burnt and unburnt); a leaf-shaped arrowhead (burnt); pieces of quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
; pieces of stalactite
Stalactite
A stalactite , "to drip", and meaning "that which drips") is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone...
(now missing); sherds of Neolithic pottery; and cremated bone fragments. Atkinson speculated that the stalactite originated from Cat Hole cave, which (along with Tooth Hole cave) Whittle and Wysocki note as a possible source of the quartz too.
Following the excavation led by R J C Atkinson
Richard J. C. Atkinson
Richard John Copland Atkinson CBE was a British prehistorian and archaeologist.-Biography:He was born in Evershot, Dorset and went to Sherborne School and then Magdalen College, Oxford, reading PPE...
in 1960, the cromlech was placed under the guardianship of the then Ministry of Public Building and Works
and, in 1961, was partly restored. Atkinson made "minimal" excavation records, and no report of it was published until Whittle and Wysocki's detailed report in 1998. In it, they suggest that corpses may have been placed in caves near the cromlech until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb, a process known as excarnation
Excarnation
In archaeology and anthropology, the term, excarnation , refers to the burial practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead, leaving only the bones....
.
Analysis
Black Mountains, Wales
The Black Mountains are a group of hills spread across parts of Powys and Monmouthshire in southeast Wales, and extending across the national border into Herefordshire, England. They are the easternmost of the four ranges of hills that comprise the Brecon Beacons National Park, and are frequently...
, the Gower Peninsula and the Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in the southern part of Glamorgan, South Wales...
where up to 50 individuals have been interred – men, women and children – in each cromlech.
The skeletal remains of over 40 individuals were recovered from the cromlech at Parc le Breos Cwm, some of which showed evidence of weathering and of biting and gnawing by animals. This suggests the corpses lay exposed to decompose and were interred in the burial chambers defleshed, as parcels of bone. Skeletal remains from the passageway were part–articulated, showing no sign of animal scavenging, suggesting they were placed in the cromlech as fleshed corpses. Whittle and Wysocki note that among the human remains are the bones of "8 dogs, a cat, a red deer, pig, sheep and cattle". They speculate that the two caves near the cromlech were used as depositories for the corpses prior to decomposition, and that when the bones were collected from the caves for reinterment others already lying in the cave were unwittingly gathered too.
Radiocarbon dated
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
samples from the cromlech show the tomb was accessed by many generations over a period of 300–800 years, and that the human bones are the disarticulated remains (i.e., not complete skeletons) of at least 40 individuals: male and female adults, adolescents, children, and infants. One of the red deer bones has been radiocarbon dated to between 2750 BP and 2150 BP, showing that at least some of the bones entered long after the site had been deserted.
Lifestyle indicators
Examination of the bones from which stature could be estimated, indicate that the male mortuary population were "big men" – the 1869 report notes males of "gigantic proportions" – whereas the females were "short and gracile". Pollard notes that males analysed from Parc Cwm long cairn were "particularly robust" when compared to females.Musculoskeletal analysis showed significant gender lifestyle variation. Greater leg muscle development was found in males of the Parc Cwm cromlech, possibly the result of hunting or herding, confirming the sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Examples of such differences include differences in morphology, ornamentation, and behavior.-Examples:-Ornamentation / coloration:...
found in previous analyses of the remains. In contrast, no such variation was noticeable in the remains found during excavations from other nearby sites, for example the Tinkinswood burial chamber
Tinkinswood
Tinkinswood or its full name Tinkinswood Burial Chamber , also known as Castell Carreg, Llech-y-Filiast and Maes-y-Filiast, is a megalithic burial chamber, built around 6,000 BP , during the Neolithic period, in the Vale of Glamorgan, near Cardiff, Wales.The structure is called a dolmen, which was...
, in the Vale of Glamorgan. The variation in musculoskeletal stress markers may indicate a mobile lifestyle for at least some of the males analysed.
Evidence obtained from stable isotope analysis
Isotope analysis
Isotope analysis is the identification of isotopic signature, the distribution of certain stable isotopes and chemical elements within chemical compounds. This can be applied to a food web to make it possible to draw direct inferences regarding diet, trophic level, and subsistence...
shows plant foods, including cereals, formed only a small proportion of their dietary protein. The majority derived from animals – i.e., meat, and milk or blood – and contained none from marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
sources.
Remains of human teeth were analysed for evidence of arrested development and decay
Dental caries
Dental caries, also known as tooth decay or a cavity, is an irreversible infection usually bacterial in origin that causes demineralization of the hard tissues and destruction of the organic matter of the tooth, usually by production of acid by hydrolysis of the food debris accumulated on the...
. Arrested development implies periods of nutritional shortage, which could indicate failed harvests. Decay implies either periods of food shortage, or a diet consisting of high proportions of carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
or softer cooked meat, or both. Dental analyses showed no sign of periods of decay or arrested development, even where there was "considerable wear", indicating a lifestyle that was not dependent on farming cereals. The 1887 bone report notes the "good condition of the teeth". Whittle and Wysocki noted the "slight" presence of tartar
Calculus (dental)
In dentistry, calculus or tartar is a form of hardened dental plaque. It is caused by the continual accumulation of minerals from saliva on plaque on the teeth...
, and that only one tooth had been lost before death, a mandibular incisor
Incisor
Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and mandible below.-Function:...
.
Whittle and Wysocki conclude, from the skeletal and dental analyses, that the lifestyles of the people who were to be interred in the cromlech either continued to be one of hunting and gathering or, more likely, a pastoral life of herding, rather than one of agrarian-based farming.
Cathole Cave
Outcrop
An outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. -Features:Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be...
, about 200 yards (183 m) north of the cromlech along the Parc le Breos Cwm valley and near the top of the gorge, about 50 feet (15.2 m) from the valley floor. The cave is a deep triangular fissure penetrating the hillside and narrowing towards the top. It has two entrances, with a natural platform outside the larger of the two.
The cave was used as a shelter by bands of Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
hunters and as a Neolithic ossuary
Ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary...
. During the first excavation of the cave in 1864, finds were made only from the Mesolithic to medieval periods. In his "The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society vol.25 (1959), pp. 260–69", archaeologist Charles McBurney notes that "In the Post Glacial period the cave was much used by Mesolithic hunters"; a conclusion confirmed by John Campbell's excavation of 1977.
A 1984 excavation by Aldhouse-Green revealed the earliest finds from the cave, two tanged points
Projectile point
In archaeological terms, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a projectile, such as a spear, dart, or arrow, or perhaps used as a knife....
that may date to c. 28,000 BP, an interglacial
Interglacial
An Interglacial period is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age...
period during the Late Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
roughly contemporaneous with the Red Lady of Paviland
Red Lady of Paviland
The Red Lady of Paviland is a fairly complete Upper Paleolithic-era human male skeleton dyed in red ochre. It was the first human fossil to have been found anywhere in the world and is also the oldest ceremonial burial anywhere in Western Europe so far discovered. The bones were discovered between...
. The "lady" was discovered in a cave between Port Eynon and Rhossili, about eight miles (13 km) west of Cathole Cave, and has been radiocarbon dated to c. 29,000 BP, the oldest known human burial in Great Britain.
Late glacial tool
Stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...
finds from the Upper Palaeolithic date to c. 12,000 BP: flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
blades known as Cheddar points
Creswellian
The Creswellian is a British Upper Palaeolithic culture named after the type site of Creswell Crags in Derbyshire by Dorothy Garrod in 1926. It dates to between c...
; smaller bladelets known as Cresswell points
Creswellian
The Creswellian is a British Upper Palaeolithic culture named after the type site of Creswell Crags in Derbyshire by Dorothy Garrod in 1926. It dates to between c...
; scrapers
Scraper (archaeology)
In archaeology, scrapers are unifacial tools that were used either for hideworking or woodworking purposes. Whereas this term is often used for any unifacially flaked stone tool that defies classification, most lithic analysts maintain that the only true scrapers are defined on the base of...
; burins or lithic flake
Lithic flake
In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure," and may also be referred to as a chip or spall, or collectively as debitage. The objective piece, or the rock being reduced by the removal of flakes, is known as a core. Once the proper...
s; flint and bone awls; and a bone needle. Flint rarely occurs in Wales other than in drifts, or as small pebbles on beaches. Flint tools would therefore have to have been brought to the Gower Peninsula from other areas such as those now known as southern or eastern England, or Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
, either as finished tools or as incomplete, or unworked, nodules
Nodule (geology)
A nodule in petrology or mineralogy is a secondary structure, generally spherical or irregularly rounded in shape. Nodules are typically solid replacement bodies of chert or iron oxides formed during diagenesis of a sedimentary rock...
. Remains of Red Fox
Red Fox
The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...
, Arctic Fox
Arctic fox
The arctic fox , also known as the white fox, polar fox or snow fox, is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. The Greek word alopex, means a fox and Vulpes is the Latin version...
, Brown Bear
Brown Bear
The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...
, Tundra Vole
Tundra Vole
The Tundra Vole or Root Vole, Microtus oeconomus, is a medium-sized vole found in Northern and Central Europe, Asia, and northwestern North America, including Alaska and northwestern Canada...
, and possibly reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
, were found at the same level as the Upper Palaeolithic tools, providing evidence of the climate c. 12,000 BP. Other animal remains excavated during the 19th century, which may predate the Late glacial finds, include mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
, woolly rhinoceros
Woolly Rhinoceros
The woolly rhinoceros is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived the last glacial period. The genus name Coelodonta means "cavity tooth"...
, Red Deer
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
and Giant Deer
Irish Elk
The Irish Elk or Giant Deer , was a species of Megaloceros and one of the largest deer that ever lived. Its range extended across Eurasia, from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene. The latest known remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 7,700 years ago...
.
Several finds date to the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, including a bronze socketed axe, two human skeletons, and sherds of pottery from burial urns and other vessels.
Llethryd Tooth Cave
An excavation of the Llethryd Tooth Cave, or Tooth Hole cave, a Bronze Age ossuary site at a cave about 1500 yards (1.4 km) north, north west of the cromlech, was carried out by D. P. Webley and J. Harvey in 1962. It revealed the disarticulated remains of six people, dated to the Early Bronze Age or Beaker cultureBeaker culture
The Bell-Beaker culture , ca. 2400 – 1800 BC, is the term for a widely scattered cultural phenomenon of prehistoric western Europe starting in the late Neolithic or Chalcolithic running into the early Bronze Age...
. Other contemporary finds, now held at the Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales
National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...
, Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, include collared urn pottery, flaked knives, a scraper, flint flakes, a bone spatula, a needle and bead, and animal bones – the remains of domesticated animals, including cat and dog. Whittle and Wysocki note that this period of occupation may be "significant", with respect to Parc Cwm long cairn, as it is "broadly contemporary with the secondary use of the tomb".
Location
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Wales, near the centre of the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
, midway between the villages of Llanrhidian and Bishopston
Bishopston, Swansea
Bishopston is a village and community situated on the Gower Peninsula, some west south west of the centre of Swansea in South Wales. Forming part of the Bishopston ward of the City and County of Swansea, it is one of the largest villages on Gower. Bishopston has its own rugby club, South Gower...
. Its nearest village is Parkmill
Parkmill
The village of Parkmill is a small rural settlement in the Gower Peninsula , South Wales , midway between the villages of Penmaen and Ilston , about eight miles west of Swansea , and about one mile from the north coast of the Bristol Channel...
, a small rural settlement about one mile (1.5 km) to the south–east.
Parc Cwm long cairn lies on the floor of a dry, narrow, limestone gorge
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
, at an elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
of about 50 feet (15.2 m) above sea level
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
, less than miles (2 km) from the south coast of the Gower Peninsula. It is in about 500 acres (202.3 ha) of woodland called Coed y Parc, the remnants of a former medieval deer park
Medieval deer park
A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.-History:...
(Parc le Breos) from which the cromlech derives its alternative name: Parc le Breos burial chamber. Established as an enclosed area of about 2000 acres (809.4 ha) by John de Braose
John de Braose
John de Braose , known as Tadody to the Welsh, was the Lord of Bramber and Gower.-Re-establishment of the de Braose dynasty :John re-established the senior branch of the de Braose dynasty....
, Marcher Lord of Gower, in about 1221–32 CE, the park is now mainly farmland. A 19th-century hunting lodge about 1200 yards (1.1 km) north–east of Parc Cwm long cairn has been converted into a hotel and pony trekking (horse riding) centre called Parc le Breos.
Coed y Parc is owned and managed by Forestry Commission Wales
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
. The site is open to the public free of charge and has parking for 12–15 cars about 750 feet (228.6 m) away. Facing the car park on the opposite side of the lane, a kissing gate
Kissing gate
A kissing gate is a type of gate which allows people to pass through, but not livestock.The normal construction is a half-round, rectangular, trapezial or V-shaped enclosure with a hinged gate trapped between its arms. When the gate is parked at either side of the enclosure, there is no gap to pass...
allows wheelchair access to a level asphalt track running past the cromlech down the length of the gorge, passing within about 10 feet (3 m) of the cairn. Parc Cwm long cairn is maintained by Cadw
Cadw
-Conservation and Protection:Many of Wales's great castles and other monuments, such as bishop's palaces, historic houses, and ruined abbeys, are now in Cadw's care. Cadw does not own them but is responsible for their upkeep and for making them accessible to the public...
(to keep), the Welsh Assembly Government
Welsh Assembly Government
The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. It is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, the legislature which represents the interests of the people of Wales and makes laws for Wales...
's historic environment division.
See also
- 4th millennium BC4th millennium BCThe 4th millennium BC saw major changes in human culture. It marked the beginning of the Bronze Age and of writing.The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt were established and grew to prominence. Agriculture spread widely across Eurasia...
- 5th millennium BC5th millennium BCThe 5th millennium BC saw the spread of agriculture from the Near East throughout southern and central Europe.Urban cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia flourished, developing the wheel. Copper ornaments became more common, marking the Chalcolithic. Animal husbandry spread throughout Eurasia,...
- BioarchaeologyBioarchaeologyThe term bioarchaeology was first coined by British archaeologist Grahame Clark in 1972 as a reference to zooarchaeology, or the study of animal bones from archaeological sites...
- Britons (historic)
- Cove (standing stones)Cove (standing stones)Cove is a term used to describe a tightly concentrated group of large standing stones found in Neolithic and Bronze Age England. Coves are square or rectangular in plan and seem to have served as small enclosures within other henge, stone circle or avenue features. They consist of three or four...
- Forensic archaeologyForensic archaeologyForensic archaeology, a forensic science, is the application of archaeological principles, techniques and methodologies in a legal context .-Overview:...
- Knapping
- List of Cadw (Welsh Heritage) Properties
- PalaeopathologyPaleopathologyPaleopathology, also spelled palaeopathology, is the study of ancient diseases. It is useful in understanding the past history of diseases, and uses this understanding to predict its course in the future.- History of paleopathology :...
- Passage gravePassage gravethumb|250px|right|A simple passage tomb in [[Carrowmore]] near [[Sligo]] in IrelandA passage grave or passage tomb consists of a narrow passage made of large stones and one or multiple burial chambers covered in earth or stone. Megaliths are usually used in the construction of passage tombs, which...
- Prehistoric archaeologyPrehistoric archaeologyHistory is the study of the past using written records. Archaeology can also be used to study the past alongside history. Prehistoric archaeology is the study of the past before historical records began....
- PrehistoryPrehistoryPrehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
- TumulusTumulusA tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
- Welsh placenamesWelsh placenamesThe placenames of Wales derive in most cases from the Welsh language, but have also been influenced by linguistic contact with the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Anglo-Normans and modern English...
External links
- Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales: Key Sites Southeast Wales – Neolithic and earlier Bronze Age
- Britain Express, The Neolithic Era (c. 4000 - 2000 B.C.)
- Cantre'r Gwaelod – The Lost Land of Wales
- Waymarking – Megalithic monuments
- Casglu'r Tlysau/Gathering the Jewels – Welsh Heritage and Culture
- Pretanic World.com
- Archaeology in Wales
- VisitWales.com The official guide to places to stay and things to do in Wales.
- Wales.com – Gateway to Wales
- Photos of Parc Cwm long cairn and surrouding area on Geograph
- Photos of Llethryd Tooth Cave on ogof.org