Excavations at the Pillar of Eliseg, Llangollen, 2010–2012

EXCAVATIONS AT THE PILLAR OF ELISEG, LLANGOLLEN, 2010–2012 PROJECT ELISEG Final report prepared for CADW February 2015 Nancy Edwards, Gary Robinson and Howard Williams With the assistance of Carol Ryan Young 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 METHODOLOGY 7 EXCAVATION OVERVIEW 8 CONTEXT NARRATIVE 9 SPECIALIST REPORTS 15 Petrology Report: The Nature and Source of Stone - Jana Horák 15 Report on the Cremated Bones – Geneviève Tellier 19 Report on the Animal Bones – Sian James 24 Charcoal Analysis from the Pillar of Eliseg – Pat Denne 26 Pillar of Eliseg Bronze Age Finds 27 Pottery – Julie Edwards 29 PROJECT ELISEG'S PUBLIC ARCHAEOLOGY 33 DISCUSSION – TOWARDS A CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE PILLAR OF ELISEG 42 REFERENCES 69 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 81 FIGURES 82 APPENDICES 104 Context Register 104 Drawing Register 106 Finds Register 108 Photographic Register 124 Sample Register 156 3 INTRODUCTION The Pillar of Eliseg, originally an early medieval round-shafted cross with a lengthy Latin inscription, stands on top of a burial cairn (PRN 101159, 101161) in a prominent location in the valley of the Nant Eglwyseg 400m north west of Valle Crucis Abbey near Llangollen, Denbighshire, in north-east Wales Figure 1. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Guardianship site. Project Eliseg was set up in 2009 to explore the archaeological context of the Pillar and the cairn thereby enabling the reconstruction of a more detailed ‘biography’ of the monument. It also aimed to test the hypothesis that the original cross might have been the focus of an early medieval assembly and/or royal inauguration site associated with the early medieval rulers of Powys (Edwards 2009, 168–169). A further important element of the project was to assist Cadw in the long-term conservation of the site and its better interpretation for the general public. Prior to the excavation Sarah Semple (Durham University) and Alex Turner (Newcastle University) carried out resistivity and magnetometry surveys on part of the ridge to the north of the monument and a ground-penetrating radar survey of the burial mound itself (Turner 2008). Three successive seasons of excavations were carried out 2010–2012, seven weeks in all. The first season, 19 July – 1 August 2010, initiated investigation of the burial cairn and identified the approximate location of the documented eighteenth-century antiquarian intervention, as well as testing for possible features on the ridge which were suggested by the geophysics. The second season, 3 – 17 September 2011, concentrated on the cairn and its immediate environs and focused on the excavation of the antiquarian intervention and the recording of surviving earlier stratigraphy and other archaeological features which might shed light on the earlier history of the mound. The final season, 26 August – 15 September 2012, aimed to resolve the stratigraphical sequence of monument construction, excavate and record three stone-lined burial cists located during 2011 and establish a chronological sequence for the use of the cairn through the identification of suitable samples from sealed stratified contexts for radiocarbon dating. Project Eliseg is a collaborative venture between Bangor University and the University of Chester. The excavation was conducted with the assistance of students from both institutions and also as a community project in partnership with Llangollen Museum. Location The Pillar of Eliseg is sited at 120m OD in a strategic and highly visible location (SJ 20274452) on the west side of the narrow valley of the Nant Eglwyseg, a tributary of the River Dee which marks a major east-west route into Wales. It also lies on an important north-south land route approximately 3km south-east of Bwlch yr Oernant (the Horseshoe Pass) which crosses Maesyrychen Mountain at a height of 417m thereby linking the Vale of Llangollen with the Vale of Clwyd and the coastal plain to the north. The east side of the Nant Eglwyseg valley rises sharply to 378m OD. The western side of the valley is less precipitous with a rocky outcrop rising to 230m to the south-west. The Pillar stands on top of the burial cairn which is located on the southern end of a glacial ridge which runs approximately north–south along the western side of the valley floor (Figure 2). This location makes the monument appear more prominent in the landscape. The land to the south drops away sharply but to the north the ridge provides a natural amphitheatre. The land on which the Pillar of Eliseg lies is currently farmland used in rotation for pasture, the cultivation of barley and of root vegetables. 4 The land is regularly ploughed and harrowed for the purpose of improvement and for the reseeding of crops. The complex geology of the area is discussed by Dr Jana Horák (National Museum Wales) (see below). Background to the Excavation The Pillar of Eliseg and the cairn on which it stands have a complex and chequered history. The original cross is first mentioned in the historical record with the foundation of the Cistercian abbey of Valle Crucis (‘the Vale of the Cross’) c. 1201 (Pryce 2005, 700–702, 716–718, nos 500, 514). The monument first came to the notice of antiquarians during the second half of the seventeenth century by which time the fragmentary pillar was lying on the ground and the cross-head was missing. The most important record of the Latin inscription on the shaft, which is no longer legible, was made in 1696 by the Welsh antiquarian Edward Lhuyd (BL Harleian MS 3780; BU MS Penrhos V; Edwards 2009; 2013, 322–336). During the 1770s the local landowner, Trevor Lloyd, dug into the mound and it was later claimed that he had found a skeleton in a stone cist (Pennant 1778–1783, 400; Simpson 1827, 134–135). In 1779 Lloyd had a second Latin inscription added to the Pillar which records how he had re-erected the monument in its original base on top of the mound. The significance of the original complex Latin inscription on the cross-shaft has recently been reassessed (Edwards 2009). This indicates that the monument was set up by Concenn (Mod. Welsh Cyngen), the last early medieval ruler of Powys who died in Rome in AD 854/855. This dates the monument to between c. 808 and 854 (Edwards 2013, 334–335). The inscription commemorates Concenn’s great-grandfather Eliseg, who would have been a contemporary of the Mercian King Offa (d. 796), and seems to recall his successes against the English. It has been argued that the inscription which was carved at the behest of Concenn served as an important piece of public propaganda which sets out ownership of the kingdom of Powys at a time when the kingdom was threatened by the English (Edwards 2009, 168–170). The 1827 account of the antiquarian diggings into the mound in 1770s prior to the re-erection of the Pillar claimed that human bones had been found ‘in a stone box or coffin’ in the mound and that a large piece of silver had been found in the coffin (Simpson 1827, 134–135). However this was written approximately fifty years after the event and some of the details are of dubious veracity. As a result there have been several theories regarding the original date of the mound. In the mid- nineteenth century it was believed that it was a barrow covering the grave of Eliseg (Williams 1851, 302) and it was later suggested that it was a Bronze Age barrow reused for the later eighth century for the burial of the king (Davies 1929, 366). Aims and Research Questions Research to date has raised several interesting questions about the function of the Pillar of Eliseg, the dating and construction of the mound on which it stands and the broader archaeological context and history of the monument. Project Eliseg was established with the objective of trying to answer these questions with the aid of both limited excavation and further research. It was noted, firstly, that investigation of the mound and its wider archaeological context had the potential to reveal invaluable new information about both the mound itself and the little known prehistory of the area. Secondly, the investigations presented a unique opportunity to explore the context of a surviving piece of early medieval stone sculpture found at or very close to its original location and, in particular, to test the hypothesis that the original cross had acted as a focus of an early medieval 5 assembly and/or inauguration site associated with the early medieval rulers of Powys. Furthermore, the evidence as it stood suggested that the site might be a classic case of the manipulation of the past over time. Therefore the sequence and date of both the mound and activity around the mound would be key questions for understanding the statements made by the original cross and its inscription in relation to the past. Finally, given its known medieval and post-medieval ‘afterlife’, the project aimed to address key questions concerning the biography of the monument, its role in the monastic landscape, and (in particular) how it might have been re-invented in the late eighteenth century through antiquarian investigation and its possible re-erection as part of a romantic landscape and to set these events in a wider context. The first aim of the excavation was to establish the constructional and chronological sequence of the burial mound, including subsequent alterations. The second was to identify the context and relationship of the monument to other archaeological features, including the ground-truthing of the geophysical surveys by Semple and Turner (Turner 2008). Excavation of the mound was to go hand- in-hand with its conservation, particularly the removal of tree-roots on the west side of the mound and the repair of sheep scrapes round the base of the kerb, particularly on the eastern side, which had been made worse in recent hard winters as only the Pillar, rather than the entire mound, was fenced.

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