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Prehistoric Sites in Wales (1 of 5)

Astronomical Alignments at Crick Barrow, Gwent

Orientations of Neolithic Tombs in South Wales

Archaeoastronomy in South Wales:

Introduction

Explanation of Table Data

Neolithic Tombs in GLA & MON

Neolithic Tombs in BRE & HRF

Stone Circles & Avenues

Stone Rows & Stone Pairs

Round Cairns & Round Barrows

Enclosures, Ringworks & Ring-Cairns


Neolithic Tombs in

Glamorgan and Monmouthshire

 

by Martin J. Powell


Heston Brake long cairn, Monmouthshire (Gwent), looking Eastwards along the monument's axis

Unlike many of the long cairns in the Black Mountains, most of the tombs in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire (Gwent) are terminally chambered, i.e. with a simple chamber positioned immediately behind the forecourt. There are also a number of ‘miscellaneous’ or hybrid types, displaying individuality in design and construction.

Two of the tombs in this list - Parc le Breos Cwm (SS 537 898) and Pen-Maen Burrows (SS 531 881) - have transepted chambers, where one or more pairs of side chambers branch off from the main passageway.

None of the tombs presented here have complex astronomical lines, all of them in fact representing the axis line of the main chamber and/or the long cairn. The best preserved (and restored) examples are Tinkinswood (ST 092 733) and Parc le Breos Cwm, the latter having recently been radiocarbon dated to a period around the middle of the fourth millennium BC (Whittle & Wysocki 1998).

[Several entries in the table include a photograph of the site. To view the image, click on the word 'Photo' on the right of the table; the image will open in a new window]

 Archaeoastronomical survey results for prehistoric chambered tombs in Glamorgan and Gwent counties, South Wales


Copyright  Martin J Powell  August 2001, with revisions 2005


Archaeoastronomy in South Wales:

Introduction

Explanation of Table Data

Neolithic Tombs in GLA & MON

Neolithic Tombs in BRE & HRF

Stone Circles & Avenues

Stone Rows & Stone Pairs

Round Cairns & Round Barrows

Enclosures, Ringworks & Ring-Cairns


BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHILDREN, George & NASH, George

 

1996    Prehistoric Sites of Monmouthshire (Monuments in the Landscape, Volume 4) (Logaston Press, Woonton Almeley), pgs. 38-40.

 

POWELL, T. G. E. (ed) et al

 

1969    "The Cotswold-Severn Group" by J. X. W. P. CORCORAN in Megalithic Enquiries in the West of Britain (Liverpool University Press, Liverpool), pgs. 13-106.

 

ROYAL COMMISSION ON ANCIENT & HISTORICAL MONUMENTS IN WALES

 

1976    An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Vol. 1. Pre-Norman, Pt. 1: The Stone and Bronze Ages (HMSO, Cardiff).

 

WEBLEY, J.

 

1961    "Y Garn Llwyd, Newchurch, West Monmouthshire: A Reassessment" in The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies Vol. XIX, Pt.3 (University of Wales Press, Cardiff), pgs. 255-8.

 

WHITTLE, A. & WYSOCKI, M.

 

1998    "Parc le Breos Cwm Transepted Long Cairn, Gower, West Glamorgan: Date, Contents and Context" in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society Vol. 64, pgs. 139-182.


Aenigmatis

Prehistoric Sites

in Wales

Prehistoric Sites

in England

Prehistoric Sites

in Scotland

A Round Barrow

in Gwent

Neolithic Tombs

in South Wales


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