The First Stones: Penywyrlod, Gwernvale, and the Black Mountains Neolithic long cairns of south-east Wales

REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH The two Cotswold-Severn Neolithic burial-ritual monuments of Penywyrlod and Gwernvale occupy the western hinterlands of the Black Mountains in Breconshire, Wales. Both monuments are only part of a handful of Neolithic burial-ritual monuments in Wales to have been excavated in recent times. Both were rigorously excavated in the 1970s. The Penywyrlod excavation was directed by Bill Britnell, and Gwernvale by Hubert Savory. A detailed monograph outlining the excavation and results was published in 1984. The Gwernvale excavation was a rescue project that culminated in a road scheme that would impact the monument on its southern side. Similarly, the Penywy