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Stone Axe-head Manufacture: New Evidence from the Preseli Hills, West Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

A. David ,
G. Williams ,
David Jenkins ,
Ian Rigby  and
Olwen Williams-Thorpe
A. David
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 1AB
G. Williams
Affiliation:
Dyfed Archaeological Trust, The Shire Hall, Carmarthen Street, Llandeilo, Dyfed, SA19 6AF
David Jenkins
Affiliation:
University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW
Ian Rigby
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Birkbeck College, University of London
Olwen Williams-Thorpe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
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Abstract

Fieldwork by the Dyfed Archaeological Trust during 1989–92 has identified clear evidence for the manufacture of stone axeheads at two locations on the eastern flanks of the Preseli Mountains, Dyfed: at Glyn-y-Fran, Llanfyrnach (SN 186 307) and near Glandy Cross (SN 143 266). At both sites, small quantities of lithic debris were collected from field surfaces after cultivation; unfortunately, no contemporaneous features were found by subsequent, very limited, trial trenching. In this report we describe the fieldwork at these two sites, and the resulting lithic collection, concluding that the latter represents evidence for small-scale and opportunistic exploitation of locally abundant erratics during the Neolithic. The Glandy Cross area was later a focus for the construction of ritual monuments during the Bronze Age, and there is also some evidence for continuing activity at Glyn-y-Fran at this time.

Petrological thin section analysis of some of the artefacts is reported and demonstrates a probable identity with petrological Group VIII; geochemical analysis of some of the same artefacts places the likely geological origin of these at local igneous exposures also in the Preselis. These conclusions are reviewed in the light of current discussion on the usage and origins of raw materials in later prehistory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 61 , 1995 , pp. 433 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1995

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