Carn Llechart
Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 26.4 " N , 3 ° 53 ′ 16.2" W.
Carn Llechart is one of the larger Bronze Age ring-cairn- like structures in the Unitary Authority of Neath Port Talbot in Wales . It is located at Rhyd-y-Fro near Swansea in West Glamorgan . The stone circle of around 12.0 m in diameter surrounds a central stone box and consists of 25 wide, outwardly inclined megalithic stone slabs. Its typological classification is somewhat unclear. A similar facility is Bryn Cader Faner in North Wales.
The capstone and the eastern keystone are missing from the central stone box. It seems that the circle neither had an entrance nor was covered by a hill. Aubrey Burl (1926–2009) described this "Ring Cairns" as the oldest stage in stone circle development . Today it is true that real Ring Cairns emerged too late to establish such an ancestry. A possible date of origin is the 2nd millennium BC. Chr.
Probably the existence of stone circles in other regions of the island prompted the population of the mountainous regions of England, Scotland (e.g. on South Uist ) and Wales ( Bryn Cader Faner ) to set up large stones around Cairns. Ring Cairns often appear in pairs or in groups of up to four. Occasionally they are located within Rundbarrow cemeteries. The Cairns mostly have a diameter of 10-20 m. In the vicinity of Carn Llechart are a Neolithic megalithic complex and some Bronze Age barrows.
literature
- Frances Lynch: Ring cairns and related monuments in Wales. In: Scottish Archaeological Forum. 4, 1972, pp. 61-80.
- Frances Lynch: Ring cairns in Britain and Ireland: their design and purpose. In: Ulster Journal of Archeology. Vol. 42, 1979, pp. 1-19, JSTOR 20567822 .