Archaeologists Dig Up The Past

... to unravel some mysteries.

: A trial excavation at Brownslade Barrow, on part of the Castlemartin Army Training Estate earlier this year.; Image by: Cambria Archaeology.

by Pembrokeshire Coastal National Park Authority

July 25, 2006

Archaeologists will this summer unravel some of the mysteries surrounding a large burial barrow on an Army Range in Pembrokeshire - more than a century after initial investigations were made into this very important site.

The Ministry of Defence is funding a four-week long excavation at Brownslade Barrow, on part of the Castlemartin Army Training Estate. The project, co-ordinated by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and Cambria Archaeology, will involve archaeology students from Cardiff University working with archaeologists from Cambria and from the Defence Estates.

The work is taking place through a process known as the ‘ILMP’ - the Integrated Land Management Plan. This aims to make sure that the army ranges are managed as well as possible, taking into account the environmental and historical concerns as well as military training. The National Park and the Countryside Council for Wales are the principal organisations represented in this management planning.

Brownslade Barrow is a significant landscape feature and is of major historical and archaeological importance. However, it is being damaged by badger burrowing, so the MoD funding will allow archaeological information to be recovered before the site is totally destroyed.

Said Polly Groom, the National Park Authority’s Archaeologist: It was partially excavated in the 1880s and is believed to have prehistoric Bronze Age origins. Evidence was found of later re-use, with burials presumed to date from the early Medieval period.

Two very recent trial investigations on site revealed over 100 pieces of human bone, from at least six individuals. Radiocarbon dates put them within the early Medieval period (5th - 11th centuries AD). The remains may occupy a time span of up to 500 years.

The site is really unusual in having good preservation - mostly in Pembrokeshire the soils are so acid that the preservation of remains is very poor. This makes Brownslade even more important and interesting.

The firing programme at Castlemartin Range has been particularly busy recently as a result of the Armed Forces being deployed in Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Luckily, the month of August is one of the few occasions in the year when the County Cadet Force battalions train at Castlemartin. It is therefore possible, at the same time, to permit access to Brownslade for the Archaeologists to carry out the excavation.

It is going to be a very busy archaeology summer within the National Park. The Brownslade dig follows on a two-week investigation at West Angle where last year Cardiff students, working with the National Park and Cambria Archaeology, carried out initial investigations and discovered an early Christian shoreline cemetery. The students are currently at West Angle carrying out further site work.

Information, pictures and updates from both excavations will be posted online in a regular ‘dig-diary’ throughout the summer - visible on their website.

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