Plas Gogerddan, nr Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. SN 6225 8400

In September 2002, Brian Jones of Llanafan deposited five pieces of prehistoric flint with Toby Driver, RCAHMW, found in Cae Gwastad field, just north of Nant Clarach in the lowlands west of Plas Gogerddan. The flints were found during planting work in fields belong to the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research.

The most notable of the five pieces is the upper fragment of a very fine flint blade on translucent grey flint. The upper 28 mm of the blade is preserved with a clean break midway along its length, and remnants of cortex along the side opposing the main blade edge. This long edge is clean and unretouched, and in remarkable condition given the history of ploughing on site. The quality of blade production this piece represents was unmatched in the flint assemblage gathered by Driver and Charnock between 1998-2000 (Driver and Charnock 2001), and may represent Mesolithic work. A second worked flake, 30mm x 24mm, is undiagnostic, but its bulbar side has been considerably thinned with a single flake removal, while the flake side shows signs of pressure flaking from many different points, presumably in an effort to thin, strengthen and shape the piece. The edge has been intermittently trimmed. One supposes this flake was destined to be made into a pressure-flaked artefact, perhaps even an arrowhead, but the work was discontinued.

The three remaining flakes represent debitage; one is a secondary flake bearing outer cortex, whilst two are best described as core cleaning flakes, both bearing evidence of the step-fractures which obviously interrupted the production of flakes and blades. The further evidence of lithic scatters in this restricted lowland area lends greater weight to the possibility that the oval Gogerddan Enclosure at SN 624 839 may indeed represent a Neolithic Henge, or Bronze Age enclosure as originally postulated by Briggs (1994: 127), rather than a defended or farming enclosure of the Iron Age. The flints have been deposited in the Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth.

References:
Driver, T and Charnock, R, 2001, Prehistoric flint finds from Plas Gogerddan, near Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. Studia Celtica, XXXV (2001), 341-350.
Briggs, C S. 1994. 'The Bronze Age', in Davies, J L, and Kirby, D P. (eds.). 1994. Cardiganshire County History Vol. I, From the Earliest Times until the coming of the Normans, (CAS/RCAHMW, University of Wales Press, Cardiff). pp.124-218.