Welsh Journals

A MIDDLE BRONZE AGE BARROW AT CRICK, MONMOUTHSHIRE. By DR. H. N. SAVORY. INTRODUCTION. THE pleasantly undulating strip of Monmouthshire country which lies between the high ridges of \Ventwood, Earlswood Common, and Chepstow Park on the one hand and the Caldicot Level on the other is not remarkably rich in Bronze Age barrows. The region is fertile, and to this day much of it has remained under plough agricultural operations may therefore account for the survival in the whole district of only three round barrows those of Carrow Hill, Llanfair Discoed, and Crick. None of these barrows occupy ridges, but stand on fairly level, low-lying ground at the foot of hills until lately only one of them, that of Carrow Hill, had been explored1 and definitely proved to be of Bronze Age date, and in the case of the other two the peculiarity of situation just mentioned, together with their close proximity to the line of the Roman road running E.-W. through Caerwent, lent some support to the surmise that they were not prehistoric at all, but Roman tumuli, erected according to custom beside roads leading out of Venta Silurum and which had somehow lost the conical profile normal in their type. The true nature of the Crick barrow was, however, established by the excavation which it is the object of this paper to record. The excavation was carried out by the writer in his official capa- city as assistant in the Department of Archaeology in the National Museum of Wales. He wishes to acknowledge the guidance which he received from Sir Cyril Fox, Ph.D., V.-P.S.A., Director, and Mr. V. E. Nash- Williams, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of Archaeology in the Museum, during the several visits which they paid to the site. Mrs. P. Murray-Threipland and Mr. B. H. St. J. O'Neil, M.A., F.S.A., also visited the site and gave welcome advice. Finally he records his indebtedness to his colleagues of the National Museum of Wales, Dr. F. J. North, D.Sc., F.G.S., Keeper of Geology; Mr. H. A. Hyde, M.A., F.L.S., Keeper of Botany; and Mr. L. F. 1Octavius Morgan, Notes on Wentwood, Castle Troggy, and Llanvair Castle, 1863, p. 14.