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Ancestral Geographies of the Neolithic, Edmonds, Bender

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Penywyrlod - Chambered Tomb in Wales in Powys

Submitted by TheCaptain on Thursday, 03 August 2017  Page Views: 17392

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Penywyrlod Alternative Name: Talgarth, Pen-y-Wyrlod, Penywyrlodd
Country: Wales County: Powys Type: Chambered Tomb
Nearest Town: Brecon  Nearest Village: Three Cocks
Map Ref: SO15053156  Landranger Map Number: 161
Latitude: 51.975988N  Longitude: 3.238161W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, A newly excavated chamber/entranceway in the already excavated/totally gone part at the South East, I've been before and you'd never have thought anything was left in THAT part, You live and learn I guess. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Marked on the OS map as Long Cairn, the remains of this tomb can be found along some little lanes to the west of the A479 just south of Talgarth. I struggled to find a suitable parking place near the footpath I was going to use to get to the chamber from the south, but on driving further north saw a farmer out in his yard...

(This site is on private land so permission should be sought) The very helpful farmer not only let me park in his yard, but also directed me on a shortcut to the chamber through his farm, although I was not too sure at all about being followed by a herd of 50 young cows through one of his fields. I went back to my car using the footpaths, avoiding the field of cows !

What a find this tomb is. Upon approaching the Cairn across the fields, the first thing that is seen is that there is a very big mound here. This is a massive stone built long barrow, over 50 metres long and 25 wide, and still at least 3 metres in height, on a northwest southeast axis. Quite how this can have only been “discovered” in 1972 is beyond me ! But this is far more than just a massive barrow, as at the southeast, part of it has been quarried away in the past, revealing all sorts of internal structure. In many ways it reminded me of the magnificent Barnenez Cairn in Brittany. It seems that the barrow was originally surrounded by walling.

Towards the southern end of the quarry are some massive stones, one of which is still upright on its edge, and must be at least 3 metres high. I assume this is perhaps a portal entrance or a side stone from a massive chamber, and there are other stones laying around which could have been other support stones or capstones. In the middle of the quarry face can be seen a large horizontal capstone, still in position one or two metres above ground level, with its edge exposed.

It was difficult to see if there was any remains of chamber below, as there is another fallen capstone in front and the stones of the cairn above have fallen in to obscure visibility. At the north side of the quarried bit is seen the remains of an entrance passageway, half of it still left in place at the edge of the quarrying. There is about 4 metres of passageway, with one side remaining, and what is probably two blocking stones for the chamber.

On the eastern side, near what would have been the original edge of the barrow, in otherwise flat quarried ground, is a tree stump under which can clearly be seen remains of another chamber or passageway.

There are probably several more chambers to be found within this awesome tomb. I have since found information that remains of 17 people have been found here, and also a 7 cm long section of hollowed out sheep femur with 3 holes cut into it. It is thought that this is possibly the oldest surviving (6000 years old) musical instrument found in Great Britain.

Finding this place was just amazing. It helped that the grid ref on the portal was wrong, so I really did think I was finding something for myself, just by going to the cairn marked on the map. There was nobody else to be seen within miles, and it really gave a strong feeling of discovery and wonderment. I could have spent a lot longer here, but time was getting on so I had to leave. I will go back sometime. In fact I will have to take someone here to show them.

Note: Strontium isotope analysis shows that one individual buried in Penywyrlod Long Cairn was a migrant from outside Wales or England (not necessarily the man pictured), but all from nearby Ty-Isaf were locals - details in the rather complicated paper in the comments - also reconstructed head - the 'face of a 6,000-year-old man'
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Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by dodomad : In 2005 Caroline Wilkinson from Dundee University was commissioned to produce a forensic reconstruction of the skull discovered in 1972. Caroline's work involves taking a plaster cast of the skull and positioning pins on it to indicate the likely depth of flesh at a number of key locations. These depths are based on measurements from the faces of modern people of similar racial type. Clay is t... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow from the West [Looking East]. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, The already exposed lateral chamber. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chamberd longbarrow, Looking over the supposed capstone at the excavation. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow excavation, Two thirds up the photo is the remains of an outer wall, The excavators had laid other stones on the ground surface following the supposed line of the wall. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, An upright and a fallen one.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, Possible capstones in the mound.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, A newly excavated chamber.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, Newly exposed ancient drystone walling.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, Uprights in the newly excavated [lateral] chamber/entranceway in the already destroyed part at the South East.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, A large stone and other exposed cairn material on the Eastern side at the North Western end of the longbarrow [looking North West].

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, The North West end looking East.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, Looking over the excavated area at the South East, From here it looks like another Lateral chamber [built into the side of the tomb]. (4 comments)

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, What looks like a capstone and on the right a fallen upright of a chamber.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Bladup : Penywyrlod chambered longbarrow, A large upright in the makeup of the cairn and on the left is another stone [either a fallen upright or a capstone].

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Postman : The cairns interior makeup.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Postman : The massive gone

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Postman : From the east, I think.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Postman : The untouched side of the barrow with Mynydd Troed in the distance

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Postman : Only being there makes you appreciate how much has gone.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by Postman : Big stone in the undergrowth, I want it to be a capstone but who knows.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by TheCaptain : Penywyrlod, Chambered Tomb, Powys, SO151316 This is far more than just a massive barrow, as at the southeast, part of it has been quarried away in the past, revealing all sorts of internal structure. This is a view north at the quarried barrow.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by TheCaptain : Penywyrlod, Chambered Tomb, Powys, SO151316 This is far more than just a massive barrow, as at the southeast, part of it has been quarried away in the past, revealing all sorts of internal structure. this is a view from the top looking south.

Penywyrlod
Penywyrlod submitted by TheCaptain : Penywyrlod, Chambered Tomb, Powys, SO151316 This is a massive stone built long barrow, over 50 metres long and 25 wide, and still at least 4 metres in height, on a northwest southeast axis. It seems that the barrow was originally surrounded by walling. This is a view from the northeast. There are probably several more chambers to be found within this awesome tomb.

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 1.1km NNE 22° Talgarth Hillfort (SO155326)
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"Penywyrlod" | Login/Create an Account | 11 News and Comments
  
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Re: Penywyrlod by Andy B on Thursday, 25 January 2018
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Penywyrlod is the largest Neolithic long cairn to survive in the area of the Black Mountains and one of the largest in Wales. It measures 52m by 22.5m and stands a maximum 3m high. Situated at 260m above sea level the cairn is sited in a location typical for many Black Mountain long cairns, fairly high up in the foot-hills, close to what is now good agricultural land. The plan and features of the cairn suggest it is a member of the laterally-chambered, ‘dummy portal’ group of Severn-Cotswold long cairns that are well represented in the Black Mountains area. It has been dated by Radio Carbon close to 3,900 cal BC and is thus a relatively early example.

Source: Coflein
http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/92191/details/penywyrlod-long-cairnpen-y-wrlod
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The Stone Age tombs of south-east Wales by Andy B on Thursday, 25 January 2018
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6,000 years ago small farming communities began to build tombs that continued to be used for hundreds of years - many survive to this day.

Stone Age tombs are relatively common in Wales. These 6,000 year old monuments consist of one or more chambers constructed from massive stones (megaliths). These were originally covered by a mound of earth or stones, although this rarely survives.

Many of these tombs were made to a common design, and in south-east Wales this often takes the form of mounds where the wider end points eastwards and opening to a forecourt. The internal chambers are accessed by short passages leading from the forecourt or the sides of the mound.

This design also appears throughout the Cotswolds (England), and beside the River Severn giving rise to the archaeological name Cotswold-Severn tombs.

Excavation at Cotswold-Severn tombs such as Gwernvale (Powys) have shown that they were sometimes built over earlier settlements, suggesting it was important that the dead be buried on land once occupied by the living.

At Pipton and Ty-Isaf (both in Powys) archaeologists have also discovered that some tombs were built in stages, often with a smaller monument being incorporated into a larger design.

The end product can be massive, for example Penywyrlod, Talgarth (Powys). It is likely that these grand houses for the dead were intended to stake a claim to a territory, emphasising to passers-by that the land was taken.

More at
https://museum.wales/articles/2007-05-14/The-Stone-Age-tombs-of-south-east-Wales/
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Neolithic wanderings in Wales by Andy B on Thursday, 25 January 2018
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The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Britain is a widely debated topic, particularly with regard to the role migration played in spreading Neolithic farming practices from the Continent to Britain. Now researchers from Durham University have used isotope analysis to examine the childhood origins of early Neolithic Britons, in an initiative aiming to address this question.

Concentrating on two Neolithic long cairns in Wales – Penywyrlod and Ty Isaf – the team examined nine skeletons from each. The human remains were radiocarbon dated and analysed for strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotopes to evaluate the individuals’ origins and migration history.

The results also demonstrate that the two burial populations obtained their diet from different areas. The strontium-isotope analysis for Ty Isaf indicates that the individuals could have grown up in the area surrounding the cairn, hinting at them being a local, non-mobile community. Conversely, the majority of the samples from Penywyrlod had strontium-isotope values that did not match the local biosphere range, indicating that they probably obtained their childhood diet from elsewhere. They may not have exploited areas located too far away, however, as the Malvern Hills – as well as other regions in Britain – have a biosphere range comparable to the results for these individuals.

In addition, there was one enigmatic individual whose strontium-isotope results were not consistent with any currently recorded biosphere values within England or Wales – meaning they obtained their childhood diet outside this region and may therefore have moved to Britain from elsewhere, making this journey sometime after the formation of their wisdom teeth (which usually occurs around 14 years of age).

Intriguingly, their strontium-isotope ratios are comparable to ranges recorded in northwestern France, and current arguments, based on comparative analysis of ceramics, suggest that Neolithic culture and practices may have been introduced to western Britain by the migration of groups from this region. In any case, the results provide strong evidence to support the argument that migration between Britain and the Continent occurred during the Neolithic transition in Wales.

Source:
https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/neolithic-wanderings-wales.htm
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The Penywyrlod Head - Face of a 6,000-year-old man by Andy B on Thursday, 21 April 2016
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Steve Burrow wrote: (January 2010) One of the few complete Stone Age skulls yet to have been discovered in Wales.

A rare Stone Age skull discovered in a burial mound in Powys has given scientists the opportunity to reconstruct the face of a 6,000-year-old man, revealing that he was no hulking cave man but in fact very similar looking to modern man.

In June 1972 at Penywyrlod, near Talgarth in Powys, a farmer began to quarry loose stone blocks from a grassed-over mound in one of his fields. The stone was to provide hardcore for his farmyard. It didn't take long before he came upon some larger stone slabs which lined a hole leading deeper into the mound. Within this chamber were piles of human bone.

The farmer contacted Hubert Savory, an archaeologist at the National Museum and an expert in prehistoric burial mounds, and Savory came to see the new find as soon as he could. This discovery must have come as a considerable surprise to him as archaeologists had been mapping burial...

Read the rest of this post...
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    Land use and mobility during the Neolithic in Wales explored using isotope analysis by Andy B on Thursday, 03 August 2017
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    Neil S, Montgomery J, Evans J, Cook GT, Scarre C. 2017. Land use and mobility during the Neolithic in Wales explored using isotope analysis of tooth enamel. American Journal of Physical Anthropology

    The nature of land use and mobility during the transition to agriculture has often been debated. Here, we use isotope analysis of tooth enamel from human populations buried in two different Neolithic burial monuments, Penywyrlod and Ty Isaf [see Nearby Site list above - Ed], in south-east Wales, to examine patterns of land use and to evaluate where individuals obtained their childhood diet.

    The strontium isotope results suggest that the majority of individuals buried at Penywyrlod did not source their childhood diet locally. One individual in this group has strontium isotope ratios that exceed all current known biosphere values within England and Wales. This individual is radiocarbon dated to the first few centuries of the 4th millennium BC, consistent with the period in which agriculture was initiated in Wales: the results therefore provide evidence for migration during the transition to farming in Wales. In contrast, all individuals sampled from Ty Isaf post-date the period in which agriculture is considered to have been initiated and could have sourced their childhood diet from the local region in which they were buried

    https://www.academia.edu/34072348/ (PDF - free registration required)
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Re: Penywyrlod by rogerkread on Friday, 07 October 2011
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Visited last week - not the best season as the site, apart from the quarried section, was entirely covered in dense vegetation, mostly chest-high rosebay willow-herb. Footpaths around are well waymarked (one even says 'burial chamber' on a fingerpost) with good stiles. A good short walk to it with lots of historical/ archaeological/ architectural interest on the way is to park at Pont Nicholas and use the footpath to College Farm, then go up the splendid sunken lane across the main road. Follow the waymarks. Return via Trefeca (note the former well by the roadside), over the footbridge to Tredustan and back along the minor road.
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Neolithic bone flute or whistle from Penywyrlod by Andy B on Saturday, 24 July 2004
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Bone flute made by Wales' first farmers, c. 6,000 years ago. Made on a sheep metapodial bone. It has three holes and may either have been a simple flute or whistle. The larger hole may have been the blow-hole. This is the oldest dated musical instrument found from Wales. Link for the sheep femur "whistle" (via Archive.org)
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Re: Penywyrlod by TheCaptain on Wednesday, 14 July 2004
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The sheep femur "whistle" is displayed in Cardiff museum which I visited over the weekend. Its amazing to think it has survived for 6000 years, and it doesnt take much imagination to see and hear somebody playing it long long ago. I found it quite a humbling experience.
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    Replicas of possible Neolithic flute by Andy B on Thursday, 25 January 2018
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    The magic flute
    Festival of British Archaeology 2009

    A few photos from the "Magic flute" event (2009) in which Gareth Riseborough tried to make replicas of a medieval and a possible Neolithic flute.

    He was successful in both projects. The medieval flute plays very well and looks fantastic. The Neolithic whistle looks the piece, but is very difficult to play - no fault of Gareth's there, the reason he was trying to replicate the original was to see whether it was actually a whistle, or whether it might have been simply a dog-chewed bone.

    Photos of the replicas at
    https://museum.wales/blog/2009-07-29/The-magic-flute/

    With thanks to Martyn for the link
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Penywyrlod by TheCaptain on Monday, 03 May 2004
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Am I to assume this is the burial chamber marked by the OS as Penyrwrlodd at SO151315 ? If so, I will add my comments soon. I spent the day visiting about 15 ancient sites around the Black Mountains, and this was certainly my favourite. A spectacular find.
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    Re: Penywyrlod by baz on Monday, 03 May 2004
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    This is the listing for the Penywyrlod chambered tomb near to Talgarth at SO 1505 3156. The grid ref. given at the top of the page (SO150351) is incorrect and we'll get it altered.

    baz
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