Between late Spring 1998 and Spring 1999, several scatters of worked flint were identified in the lowlands surrounding Plas Gogerddan, near Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. Field walking was carried out as and when experimental crop trials run by the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) allowed. This record describes Area E.

Area E (SN638837)

Two other flint scatters were found to the east of the IGER complex, along the course of Nant Clarach as it approaches Penrhyncoch village. Both scatters produced an interesting range of flint debitage and artefacts.

Eleven flints were recovered from Area E, including a small single-platform core (Fig 4, F) on pebble flint, similar to a core found at Abermagwr, Ceredigion, in 1997 (Driver 1997). Also recovered was a triangular section from a well-made blade on black, glossy flint (Fig 5, A). This is also of particular interest as it bears the hallmarks of a tranchet arrowhead, usually made by snapping a long blade and trimming the edges of the resulting segments (see Martingell and Saville 1996: 11). Where one would usually expect an un-retouched cutting edge, this artefact has a damaged, or clumsily retouched, edge (the top edge, as illustrated). It is possible to interpret this artefact as a tranchet arrowhead which had been damaged on impact, or re-worked in a community where good black flint was rare, to produce a small burin-type tool.

See: Driver and Charnock 2001. Studia Celtica XXXV, 341-362.

T. Driver, RCAHMW