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Archaeological Notes Edited by Richard Brewer, Keeper of Archaeology & Numismatics, National Museums & Galleries of Wales Prehistory BURRY HOLMS, GOWER, SWANSEA (SS 4001 9247) A final season of excavation on the island of Burry Holms was undertaken during September and October 2001. The work saw the completion of the excavation of later prehistoric features and the underlying Mesolithic deposits near the eroding western edge of the island in Trench 3.1 More of the outline of the later prehistoric roundhouse, thought previously to have been truncated, was uncovered, revealing the structure to be 5.6 m in diameter. Further pits and deep post-holes, the latter containing large packing stones, were also exposed. The sequence of these features and the exact form of the structure remain to be determined. One pit was found to cut the arc of the roundhouse confirming at least two phases of activity on this site. A clay-lined pit contained a fill of burnt bone, burnt stones presumably pot-boilers and charred organic material. Upon removal of the clay lining a Mesolithic blade-core and hammerstone were found in the underlying deposits. The Mesolithic layer, underlying this later prehistoric activity, was found to contain a quantity of knapping waste or debitage. This assemblage was particularly rich in hammerstones and blade cores, a number of which were burnt, as well as blade debitage. It contrasts with the assemblage from the same layer in Trench 1, where there was a higher proportion of finished tools to debitage. No Mesolithic structural evidence has been obtained from the excavated site. Various scientific techniques will be applied to samples in order to throw light on the chronology of the site, such as radiocarbon dating of the charred organics using accelerator mass spectrometry, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the sediments and thermoluminescence (TL) of burnt flints. National Museums & Galleries of Wales