Cylchgronau Cymru

THE EXCAVATION OF A BARROW IN CARDIGANSHIRE PART? A. INTRODUCTION (i) General THIS is the report of an excavation that was undertaken with a double purpose. Firstly, the barrow had recently been ploughed over for the first time, and a rescue excavation was desirable before further damage might be done the monument had not been scheduled for preservation by the Ministry of Works. Secondly, it seemed to be a suitable small site at which to attempt to stimulate interest in archaeology in the Aberystwyth district. The work was done entirely by volunteers, consisting chiefly of members of the staffs of offices and institutions in and around Aberystwyth (see note at end). Travelling and other incidental expenses, including compensation to the tenant farmer, were met out of a grant from the Board of Celtic Studies of the University of Wales. The barrow was first seen by the writer in November 1952 when the land was still uncultivated, rough grazing with a cover of bracken and gorse. It then appeared as a stony bank about 2 ft. high and 6 ft. wide, forming a ring about 60 ft. in diameter, the internal area being more or less flat and apparently on the same level as the ground outside. The presence of a ditch outside this bank was suspected, but the thick growth of vegetation made observation difficult. During the autumn of 1953 that part of the hill on which the barrow stands was ploughed over as part of a programme of grassland improve- ment and was planted with a root crop. The tenant was unaware of the presence of the barrow, so that on the next visit by the writer in the spring of 1954 the stony bank had been spread and reduced to a height of about 1 ft. in places the central area did not seem to have been damaged, but had been partly covered by material derived from the bank, and the shallow ditch had been almost completely filled in the same way. A rescue excavation was obviously desirable before the field was ploughed again, but unfortunately there was not sufficient immediate response from student volunteers, so that the project was postponed until another year. By the summer of 1955 the land had been put down to grass. This time an excavation was successfully arranged, the volunteers being residents of Aberystwyth who wanted *Part II will appear in the 1957 number of CEREDIGION, and will comprise an analysis of the material, as well as reports on botanical and soil specimens.