In my third column exploring Current Archaeology’s coverage of Wales, I will tour the south of the country, focusing on Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. Before I head into the detail of some of the sites explored in the area, let me begin by flagging a piece of coverage that ran right through this area in CA 216 (March 2008), when the magazine reported on fieldwork in advance of the expanded National Transmission System for gas. For anyone interested in the archaeology of south Wales, this survey is an excellent place to start. Billed as the ‘biggest dig in Welsh history’, it examined sites across more than 300km of south Wales and western England, from Milford Haven in the west to Tirley (near Tewkesbury) in the east. Along the first 120km alone, 129 sites were identified, of which 20 developed into major excavations by teams from Cotswold Archaeology and Cambrian Archaeological Projects.
Another similarly landscape-scale perspective was then explored in CA 234 (September 2009), when CA reported on the Green Mines Project, an EU-funded initiative to promote sustainable tourism in areas affected by mining activities. In this case, works were being undertaken to conserve and present the physical remains of industrial heritage across Blaenau Gwent, regenerating this landscape plundered for its iron and coal.
These two features alone speak volumes for the intensity of human occupation in south Wales across the millennia, a theme that runs across this column.
