Studia Celtica 34

Report on the archaeological investigation of a long barrow forming part of the Dyffryn Lane henge complex. A geophysical survey showed the barrow itself as two diverging lines running from south-west to north-east. Two square barrows and a large, apparently circular pit were located close to the north-east end; parallel lines oriented approximately east-west across the whole area were interpreted as the remains of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation. Two small trenches excavated across the ditch of the long barrow enclosure; the first revealed the edge of a stone cairn at the end corresponding with the central area of the barrow, and the palisade trench surrounding the enclosure including carbonized remains from some of the oak posts. The second trench also revealed the palisade trench, as well as what appeared to be a cross-ditch representing a façade joining the lateral palisade trenches. Radiocarbon samples from the outer rings of burnt oak posts indicated a calibrated date of 4762 ±29 BP.

Report on the excavation of a site including a building of Roman date associated with a series of cobbled surfaces alongside a metalled road. The building was identified from the foundations of its western and southern walls, cobble spreads comprising its internal flooring, and a hearth. It is likely to be associated with the agricultural exploitation of the surrounding environment, and dates from the third century AD. Underlying these structures were a number of ditches representing earlier Roman drainage. The Roman remains overlay waterlogged Holocene deposits within which were preserved an Iron Age peat deposit and a single Bronze Age wooden upright post. Palaeo-environmental analysis allowed the reconstruction of the prehistoric and Roman environment. Includes specialist reports on

The author looks at the construction of the separate national identities of Wales and England during the post-Roman period, including cultural change as represented in the material culture of Anglo-Saxon England and in the exchanges between sub-Roman and British culture on the one hand, and Germanic or Anglo-Saxon culture on the other.

Discussion of historical and archaeological evidence that the small village of Trelech was once a substantial and apparently planned urban implantation, probably begun soon after the acquisition of the area by the de Clare family in 1245--6. Urbanization may have been encouraged at least in part to provide targeted industrial production, particularly of iron, making Trelech an example of seigneurial `development by design'.