A new chronology for the Welsh hillfort of Dinas Powys

Ewan Campbell; Andy Seaman; Alan Lane; Gordon Noble

doi:10.15184/aqy.2023.156

A new chronology for the Welsh hillfort of Dinas Powys

Ewan Campbell
, Andy Seaman^* (Corresponding Author)
, Alan Lane
, Gordon Noble

^*Corresponding author for this work

Archaeology

University of Glasgow
Cardiff University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

24 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Excavated by Leslie Alcock in the 1950s, the inland promontory fort of Dinas Powys is widely cited as a type site for elite settlements of post-Roman western Britain. Alcock's interpretation and dating of the main defences as a Norman-period castle were effectively disproven in the 1990s, but the excavator's original chronology continues to be cited. Here, the authors present a revised chronology, integrating new radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic analysis to re-evaluate the history of occupation. The new phasing redates the main defences to the early medieval period, which aligns with the site's notable early medieval assemblage. The findings contribute to understanding of post-Roman western Britain and the (re)occupation of late antique hilltop sites more generally.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1548 - 1563
Number of pages	15
Journal	Antiquity
Volume	97
Issue number	396
Early online date	27 Oct 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.156
Publication status	Published - Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements:
The laser scan of Dinas Powys was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology. We would also like to thank Jeremy Knight, Anna Bloxam, Mark Lodwick and Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales.

Funding statement:
Dates for bank 1 were partly funded by the Leverhulme Trust Comparative Kingship project (RL-2016-069).

Funding

A detailed alternative phasing has been presented by Campbell (, , ), subsequently supported by preliminary radiocarbon dating of material from the site archive (Seaman : 5–6). Nevertheless, Alcock's original chronology still features in specialist and popular literature, and even in the National Monuments Record of Wales (RCAHMW : 99–103; Snyder : 190–2; Konstam : 60; Wiles ; Carver : 189–91). The present article draws together more than 30 years of research that challenges and refines the site chronology of Dinas Powys, and integrates a series of more robust absolute dates from a new programme of radiocarbon dating presented here for the first time. We set out a new phasing for Dinas Powys, with substantial implications for the interpretation of this prominent Welsh early medieval site, and for our understanding of post-Roman western Britain and the (re)occupation of Late Antique hilltop sites more generally.

Keywords

early medieval
hillfort
multivallate fort
radiocarbon dating
Wales

Access to Document

10.15184/aqy.2023.156Licence: CC BY

Campbell_Etal_A_New_Chronology_VOR
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Cite this

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title = "A new chronology for the Welsh hillfort of Dinas Powys",

abstract = "Excavated by Leslie Alcock in the 1950s, the inland promontory fort of Dinas Powys is widely cited as a type site for elite settlements of post-Roman western Britain. Alcock's interpretation and dating of the main defences as a Norman-period castle were effectively disproven in the 1990s, but the excavator's original chronology continues to be cited. Here, the authors present a revised chronology, integrating new radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic analysis to re-evaluate the history of occupation. The new phasing redates the main defences to the early medieval period, which aligns with the site's notable early medieval assemblage. The findings contribute to understanding of post-Roman western Britain and the (re)occupation of late antique hilltop sites more generally.",

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author = "Ewan Campbell and Andy Seaman and Alan Lane and Gordon Noble",

note = "Acknowledgements: The laser scan of Dinas Powys was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology. We would also like to thank Jeremy Knight, Anna Bloxam, Mark Lodwick and Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales. Funding statement: Dates for bank 1 were partly funded by the Leverhulme Trust Comparative Kingship project (RL-2016-069).",

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doi = "10.15184/aqy.2023.156",

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AU - Seaman, Andy

AU - Lane, Alan

AU - Noble, Gordon

N1 - Acknowledgements: The laser scan of Dinas Powys was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology. We would also like to thank Jeremy Knight, Anna Bloxam, Mark Lodwick and Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales. Funding statement: Dates for bank 1 were partly funded by the Leverhulme Trust Comparative Kingship project (RL-2016-069).

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N2 - Excavated by Leslie Alcock in the 1950s, the inland promontory fort of Dinas Powys is widely cited as a type site for elite settlements of post-Roman western Britain. Alcock's interpretation and dating of the main defences as a Norman-period castle were effectively disproven in the 1990s, but the excavator's original chronology continues to be cited. Here, the authors present a revised chronology, integrating new radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic analysis to re-evaluate the history of occupation. The new phasing redates the main defences to the early medieval period, which aligns with the site's notable early medieval assemblage. The findings contribute to understanding of post-Roman western Britain and the (re)occupation of late antique hilltop sites more generally.

AB - Excavated by Leslie Alcock in the 1950s, the inland promontory fort of Dinas Powys is widely cited as a type site for elite settlements of post-Roman western Britain. Alcock's interpretation and dating of the main defences as a Norman-period castle were effectively disproven in the 1990s, but the excavator's original chronology continues to be cited. Here, the authors present a revised chronology, integrating new radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic analysis to re-evaluate the history of occupation. The new phasing redates the main defences to the early medieval period, which aligns with the site's notable early medieval assemblage. The findings contribute to understanding of post-Roman western Britain and the (re)occupation of late antique hilltop sites more generally.

KW - early medieval

KW - hillfort

KW - multivallate fort

KW - radiocarbon dating

KW - Wales

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SP - 1548

EP - 1563

JO - Antiquity

JF - Antiquity

IS - 396

ER -

A new chronology for the Welsh hillfort of Dinas Powys

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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