Sorry, it has been a long time since anything has been added!
However, we have been busy opening up a new trench in the field north of the Iron Age fort in order to explore the relationship of the possible banks and two substantial ditches orientated east-west, discovered through a geophysical (resistivity) survey of the field which was undertaken in 2006, to that of a linear feature which runs north-south along the western length of the Caer Alyn promontory landscape. The linear feature has been suggested to be part of Wat’s Dyke which runs along the border between Wales and England, from Basingwerk on the north Wales coast to the confluence of the Rivers Vyrnwy and Morda near Maesbury. (Please have a look at our Bryn Alyn Fort section under the History and Archaeology on our website for more information). We have had to restrict the numbers of volunteers at Caer Alyn these last few months, due to COVID rules, so work has been slow!
We have have found post Medieval finds, some possible worked prehistoric flints, and evidence of 19th C ploughing. This corresponds, so far, with the finds that were found from a student dig done at Caer Alyn in 2011 on the eastern part of the same area. (Those finds have been recently been sorted and a database will be produced). The trench is closed for the winter and we hope to resume next spring!
We are on the last bit of writing up the interim report on the CAYA trench. We needed to research our most significant finds more thoroughly which are the 24 sherds of prehistoric pottery.
We have had some wonderful help from Kevin Cootes of the Poulton Research Project http://www.poultonresearchproject.co.uk/, Liz Montgomery from the Grosvenor Museum in Chester and Karen Murdoch from Wrexham Museum in identifying the pottery. We would like to send to them our very grateful thanks for their time and enthusiasm they have given us! Also, we would like to thank Dr Jo Kirton and Dr Caroline Pudney https://www1.chester.ac.uk/departments/history-and-archaeology/staff/caroline-pudney for their kind help too. Our prehistoric pottery is, probably, Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age and was found within the fill of a shallow clay pit and likely to be domestic rather than funerary.
We are looking forward to 2022 as there seems to be some exciting discoveries to found!
Happy New Year to all from the Caer Alyn Team!
Caer Alyn 