A flint awl from an ancient Cardiff hill fort -- © CAER
Posted on 08/17/2014 1:17:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists hoping to discover Roman and Iron Age finds at a Welsh hillfort were shocked to unearth pottery and arrowheads predating their predicted finds by 4,000 years at the home of a powerful Iron Age community, including flint tools and weapons from 3,600 BC.
Caerau, an Iron Age residency on the outskirts of Cardiff, would have been a battleground more than 5,000 years ago according to the arrowheads, awls, scrapers and polished stone axe fragments found during the surprising excavation.
“Quite frankly, we were amazed,” says Dr Dave Wyatt, the co-director of the dig, from Cardiff University...
“But no-one realised the site had been occupied as far back as the Neolithic – predating the construction of the Iron Age hillfort by several thousand years.”
Oliver Davis, Dr Wyatt’s colleague on the CAER project, says the ditches date from the early Neolithic period when communities first settled and farmed the landscape.
“The location and number of Neolithic finds indicate that we have discovered a causewayed enclosure – a special place where small communities gathered together at certain important times of the year to celebrate, feast, exchange things and possibly find marriage partners,” he believes.
“Such sites are very rare in Wales with only five other known examples, mostly situated in the south.
“What's fascinating is that a number of the flint arrowheads we have found have been broken as a result of impact - this suggests some form of conflict occurred at this meeting place over 5,000 years ago.”
(Excerpt) Read more at culture24.org.uk ...
A flint awl from an ancient Cardiff hill fort -- © CAER
5000 year old battle site:
“The more things change, the more they remain the same.”
” this suggests some form of conflict occurred at this meeting place over 5,000 years ago.””
Probably an argument over Global Warming.
It is no secret that the land was inhabited for the past ten thousand years or so. What is the shock?
How was then commute?
Nothing like slaying a few locals after a hard week conquering the neighbors.
Nah, this was the site of the annual national Welsh spelling bee. (Let that sink in for a minute)
Since there were regional dialects involved, disagreement over spelling was bound to occur and the losers families expressed their disagreement over the result with arrows and spears.
heh... of course, they don’t call it a spelling “b” in Wales...
Soccer.
-PJ
Do they call it a “gwenyn sillafu”?
The fight was over a beautiful young maiden named Helen of Thomas...
“Holdest my mead and watchest this!’
Pre-ice age tools have been found a few times in the British Isles, that puts a human presence there 100K years ago. But everything wound up iced over, leading to depopulation of humans and most or all fauna.
Ancient footprints found on Welsh beach [8K old]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1783353/posts
5000 year old footprints found on Formby beach [ UK ]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2641021/posts
Some do, but others don’t. That’s probably what started it.
When have humans NOT fought?
Original sin: Adam and Eve.
I always thought that the worst thing to befall a country was civil war. OUR OWN was horrific.
EVERYONE lost.
I went to Ireland a couple of years ago and our group all got a small glass of mead.
6:00 P.M. = I took a sip of the mead.
6:01 P.M. = Grin, like a fool, appeared on my face.
6:02 P.M. = Laughing began to occur.
6:03 P.M. = You don't want to know anymore, trust me.
MEAD = WOW.
Broken flint arrowheads alone might not mean conflict. Reasons ranging from shooting contests to sacrifices to deities could account for that as well. Were there scads of bodies?
...predating their predicted finds by 4,000 years....
***
Wow! I guess that was a shock.
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