Caerau

Broadcast 13 January 2013

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Videotext Communications Ltd to undertake a programme of archaeological recording and post-excavation work on an archaeological evaluation undertaken by Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’ at Caerau hillfort, Cardiff, South Wales (NGR 313335, 174970).

This small evaluation consisted of five trenches located within the hillfort interior. This located a small amount of Late Bronze Age or Iron Age activity comprising a small pit, a double post-pit and a small stakehole, all within the same trench and potentially associated with a roundhouse drip gully.

Elsewhere, Romano-British activity was identified, consisting of two enclosures and some smallscale iron smithing. A possible four-post structure was not directly dated but it is also thought to date to this period. Geophysical survey located several further possible roundhouses and ditches.

An undated ditch was investigated in the western part of the hillfort interior. Possible postholes along its edge could indicate an internal palisade.

The presence of a relict ploughsoil indicated cultivation of the interior of the hillfort in the medieval period.

Extensive use of coal was noted in two of the environmental samples, which could indicate that coal was utilised for both industrial and domestic use during the Romano-British period.

The majority of the pottery assemblage dated to the Romano-British period, with a few earlier and later sherds. A number of conjoining sheds from a possible deliberate deposit were from a small, squat, convex vessel with a slight shoulder carination. This has been dated as Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age.