Welsh Journals

DINAS Powys, AN IRON AGE, DARK AGE, AND EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT. By Leslie Alcock. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1963. Pp. xxviii + 230, Figs. 41, Pis. XII. 42s. This admirable monograph provides an excellent inauguration for what one hopes will be a series of volumes from the University of Wales Press on archaeological sites of importance to Celtic studies. In it the author presents a masterly picture of the archaeology of the low whale-back hill at Dinas Powys, near Cardiff, which was used for occupation or defence over a period of twelve or more centuries. Excavation of this very difficult site, under the direction of Mr. Alcock, revealed six cultural phases. Phase 1 is marked by the occurrence of finds of Early Iron Age 'A' at the northern tip of the hill. In Phase 2, a hill-slope fort was begun towards the southern end of the hill, but was never completed. Phase 3 is distinguished typologically by the presence of Romano-British material, but Alcock argues convincingly that there was no Romano-British occupation and that this material was brought here in Phase 4, dated to the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., which witnessed the most intensive occupation of the site. The northern end of the hill was now enclosed by feeble earthworks within which, it is argued, two sub- rectangular dry-stone houses were built. Around these there accumulated middens containing not only kitchen refuse but also Mediterranean and Continental pottery, Teutonic glass and scrap bronze, the debris of Celtic metal-working, and other evidence of Early Christian handicrafts. In Phase 5, towards the end of the eleventh century, a massive ring-work was thrown up, with debris of Phase 4 incorporated in its make-up. In Phase 6 further reinforcement was undertaken, perhaps in face of the Norman Conquest of Glamorgan. The excavations are described in accordance with these phases, the discussion being woven into an eminently readable narrative. In the second part of the book the finds are described in detail, with due reference to the essential comparanda. The whole work is illustrated throughout by plans, sections, diagrams, and photographs of a high standard. The discussion of the Norman period includes a valuable analysis of the 'ring-work' as a class of native fortification whose roots reach back to the Roman Iron Age and, in the Irish rath, perhaps earlier. But undoubtedly the most important contribution of the volume is the picture it presents of this corner of Wales in the Early Christian period. Costly imports brought to Dinas Powys from, for example, as far afield as the Eastern Mediterranean indicate that the dry-stone 'hall* on the site, of which but shadowy traces remain, was the residence of a ruler of