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. Flint scatters were described as areas A-E. This record describes Area D.

Areas D (SN 633836)

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.

Area D produced seven flints including two flake tools, one on honey-coloured flint with ventral retouch (Fig 5, E). Also, a small double-platform core made on pebble flint (Fig 4, E). Of great interest was the artefact illustrated in Fig 5, C, a very thin flake made on grey-patinated, good quality flint. It is probably a snapped transverse arrowhead, particularly given the opposing retouch on one angle and the line of retouch defining one edge (see Martingell and Saville 1996: Fig 19). Such artefacts are characteristic of the Late Neolithic period.

This field work has confirmed that artefact scatters and unenclosed prehistoric settlement in the river valleys of mid and north Ceredigion are very likely to occur on level gravel terraces and plateaux elevated above river courses, or on gravel ridges extending into lower-lying areas. These are the very places where development work is now focused. Similar topographic settings can be observed at other known later prehistoric sites in the locality, including the multiple ring-ditches and larger enclosures at Llandre (Driver, Archaeology in Wales 1998, pp94-95). The Plas Gogerddan flints from scatters A-C (NPRN 301089) occur close to the river on very low-lying ground, as do the Nantsiriol finds. Whilst this type of location is less common for prehistoric artefact scatters, possibly due to post-depositional flooding and silting, the Abermagwr flints (Driver 1997) appear to have been deposited alongside an old stream channel while the 1896 stray scraper find from Gogerddan (Smith 1898) was recovered from a stream bed. With future development pressures in the countryside set to grow, a greater amount of field walking, involving professional and amateur alike, is imperative in poorly-surveyed areas to improve our record of prehistoric and later settlement while the evidence remains.

Now published in Studia Celtica XXXV (2001), Driver and Charnock. Finds deposited in Ceredigion Museum.