Llangorsegorse Crannog: The EExcavation of an EarEarly Medieval Royal Site in the Kingdom of BrBrycheiniog

by byAla Alan Lane & Mark MarkR Redknap Oxbow Books Dec 2019

£40 pp512 pp51 hb isbn 9781789253061 9781

Known about since 1867, the artificial island on Llangorse Lake is Wales’ one crannog. Its significance was fully appreciated only in 1988, however, when dendrochronology revealed an early medieval date. Between 1989 and 2004 Cardiff University and National Museum Wales, joined in 1993 by Time Team, conducted underwater surveys and excavations (feature Nov/Dec 2014/139). These revealed a complex sequence of mound construction and some evocative artefacts, all described in comprehensive detail. Built in the early 890s, the site’s life was short: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records its destruction in 916. Finds from the homestead at the centre of a royal estate include part of a possible reliquary decorated with glass inlay, brooches, glass beads and part of a drinking horn. An “enormously important” bundle of fine textile fragments feature exceptional needlework with no exact parallels, embroidered with animal motifs and vine scrolls.