Welsh Journals

Dysgwylfa Fawr Barrow, Cardiganshire A Food Vessel and Dug-out Trunk Cremation Burial. By PROFESSOR C. DARYLL FORDE, PH.D. A ROUND barrow situated on the summit of Dysgwylfa Fawr at an altitude of 1,661 ft., 21 miles NNE. of Ponterwyd (O.S. 6 in. Card- iganshire VII N.E.) was trenched during the summer of 1937 by a group of Ponterwyd residents who discovered a central Bronze Age cremation burial of a type unusual in Wales. From the descriptions of Messrs. A. Jenkins and J. W. Smith and subsequent examination of the site and of the relics recovered it appears that the barrow, which is approximately 65 ft. in diameter and now stands to a height of 6 ft., contained a central burial within a large ring of rock slabs set up in an outward sloping position. Within this ring lay dug-out trunk some 8 ft. or 9 ft. long, of which the greater part of one end has been preserved. Above this lay a second smaller dug-out trunk 3 ft. 6 in. long. The larger trunk is said to have lain at a depth about 5 ft. below the present summit of the barrow and the smaller approximately 1 ft. higher. In the hollowed portion of the smaller trunk was a heap of cremated human bones in which was found a small flint blade, since lost, and adjacent to it a Food Vessel standing on its base. The excavators claim that large pieces of animal skin partly covered the bones and pot; but none of this has been preserved. In the vicinity of the pot a quantity of reddish animal hair was recovered. Both the dug-outs had been hewn from oak trunks, probably Quercus robur, and in both cases the bark was found intact on parts of the lower surface. Both ends of the smaller trunk and the preserved end of the larger had been hewn to a canoe shape. No wooden lids were reported by the discoverers. The solid end of the larger dug-out was originally at least 20 in. long, 20 in. broad, and 81 in. thick. The body of the timber had been hewn to a depth of 6 in. leaving walls varying from 1 to 2 ins. in thickness. Some 4 ft. of the base of this dug-out was preserved, and it appears likely that when intact the hewn trunk was 8 or 9 ft. in length. In section it was a segment of a circle and had been hewn from a trunk at least 2 ft. in diameter. The smaller dug-out trunk is at present 3 ft. 6 ins. long, and its width at the better preserved end is 11 ins. where it is 5 ins. deep and similar in section to the larger dug-out. The body had been hewn to a depth of 3 ins., leaving walls £ in. to 1 in. in thickness. The two solid ends of this dug-out each 7 ins. long appear to have been originally similar in form and to have been bevelled off less sharply than the end of the larger specimen.