This document is a snapshot of content from a discontinued BBC website, originally published between 2002-2011. It has been made available for archival & research purposes only. Please see the foot of this document for Archive Terms of Use. 21 February 2012 Accessibility help Text only BBC Homepage Wales Home Uncovering the past Last updated: 14 July 2008 Fresh research has shone new light on the burial chambers of more from this section Anglesey, says freelance archaeologist Jonathan BBC Local Anglesey Baines of Menai Bridge. Anglesey life in 1965 North West Wales BBC Wales Here For You Things to do Building on the Past Five Days on Anglesey People & Places Not all of Anglesey's burial chambers were covered by a Meet Gwenda Parry Nature & Outdoors My time on the isle mound of earth and stone, a new investigation reveals. History New Music For Wales Though over 40 of these monuments have been recorded on Religion & Ethics Our Anglesey Anglesey, only 16 are still extant. It is believed they were Prichard Jones Institute Arts & Culture built during the Late Stone Age, or Neolithic, spanning a Prichard Jones Institute, Newborough Music period from about 4200 BC to about 2200 BC. Tale of two saints TV & Radio Uncovering the past Local BBC Sites Often referred to in Welsh as a cromlech, a burial chamber is Amlwch News a group of vertically raised stones, on the tops of which a Beaumaris Benllech Sport horizontal rock, called a capstone, was placed. The individual Holyhead Weather stones of the cromlechi, and the rocks forming standing Llanfairpwll & Menai Bridge Travel stones and stone circles found all over the British Isles, are Llangefni often referred to as megaliths in archaeology. Newborough Neighbouring Sites Radio stories Mid Wales Useful links North East Wales These megaliths were put together by human creativity, and Virtual tour the whole stone structure was often covered by a mound. A Walks on Anglesey Related BBC Sites fine example of this feature, and the only one on Anglesey, Webcam Wales can be found at Bryn Celli Ddu (pictured) near Llanddaniel Cymru Fab. At this site, the interpretation of burial chambers as a interact Gogledd Orllewin metaphor for the Earth goddess's womb becomes all too Tell us about a web page clear, and is well worth a visit. Found a web page we should know about? Send us the details. Archaeologists investigating burial chambers in the 20th Email A Friend century discovered that all sites excavated (bear in mind that only eight sites have been excavated with academic intentions) had traces of a mound, apart for the site at Lligwy (Moelfre). related www links Gwybodaeth website The remains of the cairn originally covering the burial chamber at Trefignath (Holyhead) can still be seen, for more from North West instance. A cairn is essentially a mound formed entirely of Wales rocks, and is often found on the summit of mountains or along old trails in the uplands; cairns are a typical feature of Nature later prehistoric and medieval field-clearance. Going wild Get under the skin of Studies of the cromlech at Lligwy (not to be confused with Snowdonia wildlife and Din Lligwy), on the other hand, not only revealed no signs of habitats. a mound, but suggested that it was designed to provide its History builders and later generations of visitors with a spring and The Romans autumn equinox alignment. This feature can still be Find out what the empire- appreciated today, on March 21st and September 21st, and building legions got up to. this function would be rendered impossible had the megaliths Activities been hidden by an earth and rocky cloak. Head for adventure Your guide to pursuits on Research discovered that the giant capstone was not raised in mountains, rivers and at place by human effort, forming a chamber enclosed by sea. vertical stones. Rather, a cavity was dug beneath a large slab of bedrock (the capstone) which was then supported in three places by megaliths and further enclosed by other upright stones. Tai Hanesyddol During the equinoxes, the last rays of the sun as it descends O blastai crand i ffermydd below the horizon cast a shadow stretching across the gwledig, camwch dros chamber floor to the monument entrance. Inside the drothwy rhai o dai mwyaf hanesyddol yr ardal subterranean space the light is gentle, an eerie illumination manifested by sunlight reflecting on the pale limestone surfaces of the megaliths. Beyond, the shaded passage gives the spirits of the entombed dead access to unknown spheres, while also giving access to the living as they search for the mystic human experience. To find Bryn Celli Ddu (OS map 114: SH 506701) take the A4080 (Brynsiencyn) road past Plas Newydd, turn off for Llanddaniel Fab and follow the signs. Lligwy Burial Chamber is off the A5025, 1km/0.6mls north of Llanallgo. Jonathan Baines, who graduated in History with Archaeology at Bangor in 2005, works as a freelance archaeologist and operates a research company on Anglesey called Mona Gwybodaeth..