Team finds signs of prehistoric life at school site

Local volunteers helped find signs of prehistoric life at the site of the new Ysgol Bro Dinewfr.

A group of 17 people joined the archaeological team on the site at Lovelodge Fields, Ffairfach, near Llandeilo, walking across a ploughed area look for pieces of flint.

The team discovered an astonishing 175 finds from an area of about a hectare, which exceeded all expectations.

Project Manager Phil Bethell of AB Heritage said: “We were only expecting to find a few flint pieces scattered across the site.

“But as the sun shone, and with the ground being dry, we could see many more than we expected.

“To find so many prehistoric flints in the space of a few hours was a great achievement and has really made a contribution to the archaeology of the site.

“Hats off to everybody who turned out on the day, they were brilliant.”

Ysgol Bro Dinefwr is a new £29.5million building being delivered through Carmarthenshire County Council’s Modernising Education Programme.

Education executive board member Cllr Keith Davies said: “These finds are very exciting and will help form a picture of the history of this site.

“It it good to see work progressing at the site which will eventually provide a first class home for 1,200 young people aged between 11 and 19.”

The flint finds have added to the knowledge about the site, but more work is needed.

Expert Jacky Sommerville said: “The size and type of finds points to a date around the late Mesolithic to early Neolithic periods – about 6,000 to 4,000 BC. “These fragments of flint were left by some of the earliest inhabitants of the Tywi valley. “There aren’t many tools which would point to a settlement on the site, but the finds tell us that there were people around here seven or eight thousand years ago, and that they used flint which must have been traded from another part of the country as it is not found naturally in the area.

“More work will need to be done to analyse this collection so that we can get the maximum information from all the efforts of our volunteers.”

The success of the fieldwalking means that plans to dig test-pits across the area will now go ahead, and the first phase is planned to start on April 5 for four or five days.

Volunteers are welcome to join in, even if only for half a day, email info@abheritage.co.uk quoting ‘YBDTP’ for more details.

Archaeological excavation continues on the new school site until the end of April, with a team of professional archaeologists from AB Heritage Limited and Rubicon Heritage Services Limited, supported by the construction team from Bouygues UK.