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Cap stone at Trefael [Credit: The Megalithic Portal] |
The stone bears multiple cupmarks, circular holes gouged into its surface associated with ritual burial activity in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. As the stone’s shape suggests that of a capstone, the archaeologist Frances Lynch, writing in 1972, suggested the site could be a possible dolmen site. However, no geophysical survey or excavation was carried out – until now.
As the first archaeologists to fully investigate the site, Dr Nash and his colleagues Thomas Wellicome and Adam Stanford found a further 30 cupmarks of varying size and quality on the stone, along with an array of prehistoric artefacts that has led the team to suggest that this site was more than just a standing stone.
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Aerial-Cam image of the site [Credit: Adam Stanford/University of Bristol] |
Dr Nash said: “The excavation of this monument gives archaeologists a rare insight into the ritual-funerary activity of Britain’s earliest farming communities. What is more significant is the survival of pottery and human bone from this period within such acidic soils.”
A burial site of this age is very rare as intense farming practices since the seventeenth century have destroyed many ancient sites. Further excavations are planned for September this year.
Source: University of Bristol [April 12, 2012]