Cofnod Safle

NAR SH38SE4

A Bronze Age funerary mound apparently re-used in the early medieval period. It is set upon the summit of a ridge or elevated plateau.
A much mutuilated circular mound 20m in diameter and 1.2m high. It was opened in 1870 for the entertainment of the assembled Cambrian Archaeological Association, when a 'mass of pottery', two burials and a jet bead were recovered. The pottery appears to have included Roman mortaria or mixing bowl fragments.
The mound was re-examined in 1968. It consisted of a stony basal core or cairn, surrounded by a slight rough kerb and with a clay topping. The cairn incorporated several Bronze Age pottery vessels or urns, most of which had held cremations. Another cremation may have been contained in a bag. Several secondary cremations were dug into the mound. Three cists or stone-slabbed graves had also been inserted. These are likely to be early medieval burials.
No trace of Roman pottery was recovered in 1968 and it is possible that the mound was salted in 1870.

Sources: Archaeologia Cambrensis 4th series 1 (1870), 365
Barnwell in Archaeologia Cambrensis 4th series 4 (1873), 195-7
Stanley in Archaeologia Cambrensis 4th series 6 (1875), 126-8
RCAHM Anglesey Inventory (1937), 18
Lynch in Archaeologia Cambrensis 120 for 1971 (1972), 36-72

John Wiles 30.08.07