bluestones: preseli – stonehenge

a team of scientists and researcher from ucl, university of manchester, bournemouth university, university of southampton, university of leicester, amgueddfa cymru – national museum wales, and dyfed archaeological trust. have excavatied two quarries in wales by a thought to be the

tinkins wood chambered tomb.

tinkins wood chambered tomb. neolithic chambered tombs are found throughout europe and are amongst the oldest surviving man- made structures and built as the communal burial places. they are transitional monuments marking the transformation of a culture based on hunting and gathering to one based on domesticates and early farming. tombs of this date are known across wales, although this type are concentrated in the south-east of the county, on the lower slopes of the black mountains and the slopes overlooking the valleys of the wye and usk, but also in the cotswolds and the severn estuary. tinkins wood tomb has a cross linear structure dividing the monument into compartments. it is thought to derive from its evolution from similar divisions found in timbered long houses. indeed recent excavations at dorstone hill in the golden valley have unearthed such a longhouse beneath a later chambered tomb of this type.

carn wnda. earth fast chambered tomb. pembrokeshire.

carn wnda. earth fast chambered tomb. this type of tomb, typical in this part of pembroke, the capstone is held fast to the ground on one side, with the leading edge lifted up by a prop stone, and in this

zennor quoit. neolithic chambered tomb.

zennor quoit. neolithic chambered tomb. w borlase the antiquarian drew a plan of the site in the mid-c18 when the capstone was roughly horizontal and the chamber was set into a low stony mound approx 12.8m in diameter. by the time his great-great grandson visited the site in the middle of the c19, the capstone had slipped and the western upright supporting it had snapped.
the site today comprises two chambers set into a low stony mound. the main chamber is trapezoidal with its long axis running off NNE by 75 degrees. the western end is 0.83m wide, reducing to 1.9m. the total length being 3.16m. the capstone now tilted and following the line of the supporting stones is 5.33m by 2.9m and weighs about 9.45 tonnes. it has an antechamber at the eastern end formed by two impressive portal stones.
quoits are among the oldest megalithic architecture on the west penwith peninsula and would have represented a local variation of a tradition which had travelled from the levant up the west coast of spain to brittany, to arrive in cornwall in the late neolithic, around 3300 bce on route to wales, anglesea and ireland

mulfra_quoit. neolithic chambered tomb

mulfra_quoit. neolithic chambered tomb. located near the summit of mulfra hill. it can be seen from a distance and would easily be picked out across the valleys from the other adjacent hills also holding places of ceremony and seasonal occupation during the neolithic period. The hill at trewey common can seen on the horizon

cerrig-y-gof (cerrig atof) five chambered tombs.

cerrig-y-gof (cerrig atof) five chambered tombs. closely associated to scottish and irish tombs. this circular formation has its five chambers facing outward and arranged such that they have a direct relationship with prominent landscape features. an 18th century excavation records burnt bones, urns and black sea pebbles. an outlying stone seen here between the chambers and the promontory is cup marked. #capstones #propped_stone #chambered_tomb #archaeology #ancient_architecture #landscape #neolithic #cup_ marks #rock_art #bnw #cromlech #pembrokeshire