Welsh Journals

Archaeologia Cambrensis. SIXTH SERIES.-VOL. VII, PART II. APRIL, 1907. REPORT ON THE EXCAVATIONS AT COELBREN. By Colonel W. LL. MORGAN, R.E. AT the meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Associa- tion, held at Shrewsbury in the autumn of 1904, I was asked to conduct some excavations at the camp at Coelbren, to ascertain, if possible, the approximate date of its construction. This camp is a conspicuous object from the Swansea and Brecon line, about half a mile to the right, imme- diately after leaving Coelbren Station. It was well known to Mr. Glascodine and myself, and on our frequent walks on the Sarn Helen we had traversed that road throughout its whole length. Some doubtful places we had visited three or four times, thereby rectifying several errors on the Ordnance Survey map of the road. The history of the Sarn Helen is so inseparably connected with that of its camp, that I have commenced with a description of the former. The road known as Sarn Helen is undoubtedly of Roman construction. It connected the Nidum of the twelfth Iter Antoninus (which is supposed to be Neath) with Bannuum, afterwards known as Caervan, and now as the Gaer, near Brecon, on its course to Chester; but whether this portion was made on the line of an earlier 6TH ser., VOL. vu. 9