| Abstrakt: |
Archaeological surveys and evaluation trenches, both at surface and in selected underground workings, were undertaken at the Great Doward Iron Mines (popularly known as the Pancake Mines) in June 2017, with a follow up visit for photography, survey checking and further exploration in March 2018. These mines, worked for iron ore, are high above the River Wye near Symonds Yat, located on the Herefordshire side of the valley. The work was undertaken because visible evidence for firesetting, in the form of distinctive surfaces and deposits of charcoal and burnt coal, had been identified in 2016. The workings include one gallery that is by far the largest fireset example to be identified in Britain to date. At the onset of the evaluation their date was unknown, with possibilities ranging from the Iron Age to the 18th century AD. The primary aims of the fieldwork were to make a survey record of these potentially very important workings and to identify material suitable for radio-carbon dating. Twelve workings with evidence for firesetting have now been identified, six of which were surveyed in detail. In addition, three small evaluation trenches were excavated in areas with fireset mining. Charcoal from secure contexts was recovered from two of the trenches and five samples were submitted for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling suggests the firesetting activity took place at some point in the late seventeenth--early nineteenth centuries cal AD. There is a strong chance (40%) that firesetting took place in the middle of the 18th century and a knife of probable 18th century date was found in the top layers of one of the two trenches. Thus, firesetting at Great Doward is the latest identified anywhere in Britain by radiocarbon dating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
