Tuesday 20th March

Today had a lot more people join us. As well as Edith and myself several sixth formers from Lewis School attended the session along with other members of the local community. We began by showing the new volunteers some of the already recorded archaeology, explaining the ring cairns and the cist graves. Following this we moved out in a long line sweeping the area all the way back towards the car park. As there were more of us today we decided to cover the area behind the Ordinance Survey trig point as well, walking all the way round and finishing back to car park. There were a few interesting features spotted along the way but all of those turned out to be natural.

After lunch however, one of our volunteers who frequently walks this landscape guided us to another stone he’d spied whilst on his walks. This turned out to be a lot more promising!  What appear to be three circular cup marks all above a long semi-circular groove carved into the surface of a rock.  Another small circular cupmark lay to the left of these markings. Allin all, a very fascinating day!

We are working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and one day at the weekend that has yet to be arranged.

Wednesday 21st March

Wednesday’s survey began with the weather on our side for a change! Much sunnier and warmer we managed to walk the long sections to the east of the common and all around the back finishing on the west side. There were plenty of rocks to inspect but none of them were harbouring our sought-after rock art. 

 We did however, have an extended trek over the common to investigate a stone noticed on a previous walk by a volunteer. The large stone appeared to be inscribed with the letters ‘DUW’ the Welsh for God which makes this very interesting-according to locals there is allegedly another stone on the other side of the Valley inscribed with the word for Satan. For what reason we’re not currently sure of but it will make for some fascinating research!

 

 

Thursday 22nd March

Another bright and breezy day on Gelligaer Common! Small turn out today but we set out for the western edge of the project area walking from the road to halfway down the contour of the hill. It was decided that we leave the steeper, lower section as it would pose a concern for health and safety.

  
During this section of our walkover another stone was noticed that could be showing a very eroded example of rock art however we will have to ask for a second opinion, as it’s very unclear. No one in the group could agree exactly on what they were looking at! The last section of this part of the study area will be walked tomorrow, hopefully we’ll have another interesting find!

Friday 23rd March

Another glorious day on Gelligaer Common! A few more people gathered today keen to finish off our original survey area. We covered all the remaining ground set out in the original project plan by lunchtime, which was fantastic! We even had time to show our volunteers the cup mark

Janine found last summer.

 

After lunch we expanded our area by beginning to walk over the area the other side of the road south of the car park. We didn’t spot any prehistoric rock art today but we did come across some markings that initially got me very excited (as it was me that spotted them!) that turned out to be mostly likely a trig-point carving. It was carved into a flat stone by the side of the north-south road, not quite what we were looking for but interesting none the less!

Tuesday 20th March

Today had a lot more people join us. As well as Edith and myself several sixth formers from Lewis School attended the session along with other members of the local community. We began by showing the new volunteers some of the already recorded archaeology, explaining about the ring cairns and the cist graves. Following this we moved out in a long line sweeping the area all the way back towards the car park.  As there were more of us we decided to cover the area behind the Ordinance Survey trig point as well, walking all the way round and finishing back to car park. There were a few interesting features spotted along the way but all of those turned out to be natural.

After lunch however, one of our volunteers who frequently walks this landscape guided us to another stone he’d spied whilst on his walks. This turned out to be a lot more promising! What appear to be three circular cup marks all above a long semi-circular groove carved into the surface of a rock. Another small circular cupmark lay to the left of these markings. All in all, a very fascinating day!

Small cup mark (just visible to the left of the coin)

We are working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and one day at the weekend that has yet to be arranged.

Natasha Scullion

Friday 16th March

Only three of us again, Ken Janine and me. It was quite clear, but very cold. We got a lot done - all the area to the west of where we were working yesterday, as far west the cup-marked stone that was found in the summer and the westernmost platform house, and then round the north side of Pen Garnbugail as far as the track to Cwm Bargoed. There are more crags here, so we were able to see that most of the stones standing on end were like that because they had broken off the crags and bounced down the hillside until they came to a stop. So the ‘standing stones’ on the hillsides probably all got there naturally and aren’t man-made at all.

We made a proper record of the cup-marked stone, which we hadn’t been able to do in the summer as we had no measuring equipment then. We still haven’t found any more of them though!

Dr Edith Evans

Thursday 15th March

"Is there any archaeology out there?"

A very good turn-out - there were seven of us: Ken, Clive, Graham, Malcolm, Nicola, Judith and me. The only problem was the fog. It was so thick when we got to the car park at 10 o’clock that we had to wait about three-quarters of an hour for it to lift enough for us start work. While we were waiting we went to look for the big cairn by the road junction that we hadn’t visited on Monday. It took us long enough to find that too. We discussed whether it was really a ring cairn, or whether it was a round cairn that had been badly robbed, perhaps to surface the road at some time, but you can’t tell be looking at the surface.

After that we thought that the fog had thinned sufficiently to go looking for cupmarks, so we searched the little valley to the west of Carn Penbugail, where the ring cairn with the slabs set on edge is located, as we wouldn’t get lost there. Mind you, when we got up to its north end the fog was still thick enough that the two people on the far ends of the line couldn’t see each other. When we had done the return transect, we decided to look on the south side of the road as it was much clearer there. We found three stones set on end, which we thought might be the sort of little standing stone that you sometimes find associated with a group of cairns. 

Dr. Edith Evans