2013 Season - PEN13

The field school took place between 21 July and 16 August. The four week season operated as two 14-day training excavations for 42 undergraduate students from the University of Liverpool, and 10 international students who applied via the Institute of Field Research (IFR Global) in California. Work in 2013 commenced with the re-opening of Area 1, extending eastwards to incorporate the outer rampart. Our research aims this year were to:
  • finish recording recent damage to the monument, helping to inform future management
  • record Post-Medieval use of the monument
  • continue to gain an understanding of inner rampart collapse and structure
We continued to record active forms of modern erosion, including damage caused by tourist footfall, farm vehicles, and livestock. Excavation suggested that the trackway was constructed in the Post-Medieval period, when the hillfort was used for cattle grazing, with fencing, and with an earlier wall built along the inner rampart crest.  The removal of widespread collapse deposits revealed an even earlier phase of collapse, and the intact rampart. Whilst in situ rampart deposits were not excavated in 2013, those exposed in plan currently suggest that the inner rampart of the hillfort consisted of inner and outer revetment walls with an earth/turf core. The external revetment wall of the inner rampart – which students worked hard to expose and record in plan – appears to be faced on either side with a rubble core.  
In just 17 days, we gained a relatively comprehensive understanding of the construction of the inner rampart, and overall decay/collapse and subsequent destruction of the earthworks at Penycloddiau. Next season we plan to extend Area 1 across the quarry scoop to the west, and investigate a house platform immediately south-west of Area 1.

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