During the Festival of Archaeology, all issues of British Archaeology Magazine are free to view. I did some digging and unearthed an interesting find.
In the village of Tongwynlais, just 150 metres north west of Castell Coch and 20cm below the forest floor, a cache of copper weapons lay buried for 4,000 years.
This article was originally published on Tongwynlais.com.
On the 24th June 1984, a member of the Cardiff metal detecting community discovered the Bronze Age artefacts. But where did they come from?
In the December 2000 article, “Meet the Metal Makers”, Paul Budd explains that two of the finds contain significant amounts of nickel. Further analysis showed uranium is present within the ore. All the evidence proved that the copper ore in these items could only have come from Cornwall.
Does anyone remember the discovery? Was it big local story?
The Castell Coch Hoard was discovered by Mr R Mantle and donated to the National Museum Wales. You can view more information on their website.
- Early Bronze Age copper halberd with five rivet-holes and central mid-rib – 84.83H/1
- Early Bronze Age copper halberd with three rivet-holes and central rib – 84.83H/2
- Early Bronze Age bronze dagger with three rivets – 84.83H/3
