Archaeologia Cambrensis Volume LXXVI 1921 Miscellania. The Excavation Of A Megalithic Tomb [Map] In Breconshire by Colwyn Edward Vuilliamy (age 34).

v8KvnzVNThe farmstead of Ffostill is slightly over one and a half miles from the Breconshire border-village of Talgarth, in a north-easterly direction, and about the same distance from the foot of the northern escarpment of the Black Mountains. It is situated at the head of a gully which runs down from the foothills below the Range, and is on relatively high ground—just under the 1,000 ft. contour-line of the Ordnance Survey. Close to the farm buildings there is a most remarkable, if not unique, group of three tumuli. Fig. 1 will explain the placing of the tumuli [Ffostyll North Long Barrow [Map] and Ffostyll South Long Barrow [Map]] far better than a written description, and shows their peculiar arrangement. The axes of the two lower ones point respectively 21 degrees and 67 degrees east of true north. The mound which is marked "A" is a barrow of irregular shape (32 ft. by 29 ft.); while "B" and "C" are magnificent examples of the late Neolithic long barrow, of impressive size and massive construction.

Before proceeding with an account of the excavation of the long barrow "C," which is the main object of this paper, it will not be out of place to give a few particulars regarding the group.

The barrow "A," which bears external resemblance to the burial mounds of the Bronze Age, proved, on a pit being sunk therein, to contain characteristic relics of that period—namely, deposits of thick, unctuous charcoal; very small fragments of calcined bone, reduced in some cases to a white powder; and a few pieces of tiint, one of which was a triangular retouched flake. It had not been disturbed prior to my investigation, but the pit, sunk exactly In its centre, did not reveal any traces either of pottery or of a kist. The blocks of sandstone, of which it is constructed, have been placed with some regard for architectural method.

Colwyn Edward Vuilliamy: On 20 Jun 1886 he was born to Edwyn Papendiek Vulliamy and Edith Jane Beaven. On 04 Sep 1971 he died.

Archaeologia Cambrensis Volume LXXVI 1921 Miscellania. Excavation Of A Long Barrow At Llanigon, Co. Brecon.— This Long Barrow [Map] is situated in the parish of Llanigon, on a spur of the Black Mountains, at about the 800 ft. contour line, and close to a track-way which once led from the direction of Abergavenny, and over the mountain to a ford below Llowes, and so into Radnorshire. It is unrecorded except for a reference to it as a "Druidical Altar" in the Transactions of the Woolhope Club for 1898.

When the writers commenced excavations on it in September, 1920, four stones protruded some 6 to 12 in. through the surface, and evidently formed a small cist. The elevation of the mound is slight, about 4 to 5 ft., and the ovoid-shaped outline measures roughly, 50 ft. long by 30 ft. wide. The barrow is aligned through its longest axis nearly due east and west, the narrow end pointing to the west.

Operations were commenced by carrying a trench from the west stone of the cist for about 14 ft. towards the apex. This disclosed nothing but a mass of shaley stones, many of considerable size, some being as much as 4 ft. in length, laid mostly horizontallv, and showed the barrow to be a true carnedd or cairn, was verified later by openings made in other parts of the mound.

The east and west stones of the cist had fallen over and were leaning in a westerly direction; the other two had gone over to the north. The interior of the cist was next cleared, and consisted of stones up to 2 ft. in length mixed with a certain amount of black earth, and intermingled throughout with bones in a fragmentary state. The west stone measured 5 ft. in height and ft. 6 in. in length, and overlapped the two adjoining stones, which measured about 5 ft. in height and G ft. in length. The east stone fitted inside the north and south stones, and was only 3 ft. in. in height and 2 ft. 6 in. in length. The internal measurement of the cist was 2 ft. 6 in. wide, 5 ft. 6 in. long, and 5 ft. high. All traces of the capstone had disappeared.

Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries Chapter IV. Almost all the so-called dolmens in the Channel Islands are of this class. One has already been given (woodcut No. 11), and it may safely be asserted that all chambers which were wainscoted with slabs, so as to form nearly perfect walls, and all that had complicated quasi-vaulted roofs were, or were intended to be, covered with mounds - more especially those that had covered pas- sages leading to them. There is, however, a very wide distinction between these sepulchral chambers and such a monument as this at Pentre Ifan [Map], in Pembrokeshire¹. The top stone is so large that it is said five persons on horseback have found shelter under it from a shower of rain. Even allowing that the horses were only Welsh ponies, men do not raise such masses and poise them on their points for the sake of hiding them again. Besides that, the supports do not and could not form a chamber. The earth would have fallen in on all sides, and the connexion between the roof and the floor been cut off entirely, even before the whole was completed. Or, to take another example, that at Plas Newydd [Map], on the shore of the Menai Strait. Here the cap stone is an enormous block, squared by art, supported on four stone legs, but with no pretence of forming a chamber. If the cap stone were merely intended as a roofing stone, one a third or fourth of its weight would have been equally serviceable and equally effective in an architectural point of view, if buried. The mode of architectural expression which these Stone men best understood was the power of mass. At Stonehenge, at Avebury, and everywhere, as here, they sought to give dignity and expression by using the largest blocks they could transport or raise - and they were right; for, in spite of their rudeness, they impress us now; but had they buried them in mounds, they neither would have impressed us nor their contemporaries.

Note 1. 'Archæologia Cambrensis,' third series, xi. p. 284