View source for St Lythans burial chamber

{{short description|Megalithic dolmen in Wales}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2011}}
{{Infobox ancient site
| name = St Lythans burial chamber
| native_name = {{langx|cy|Siambr Gladdu Llwyneliddon}}
| alternate_name = 
| image = St Lythans burial chamber (4794) (cropped).jpg
| caption = 
| alt = a grassy field in which three large upright stones support a stone slab roof
| location = [[Wenvoe]], [[Wales]], [[United Kingdom]]
| coordinates = {{coord|51|26|33.11|N|3|17|41.68|W|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| type = [[Dolmen]]<ref name="waymarking">{{cite web |url= http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMZWC|publisher= Groundspeak Inc. |title="St Lythans Burial Chamber" Waymark |access-date=2008-08-03}}</ref>
| width = 27 meters
| material = [[Stone]]
| built = {{circa|4000 BC}}
| epochs = [[Neolithic]]
| map_type = Wales Vale of Glamorgan
| map_alt = 
| map_size = 220
| map_caption = Location of St Lythans burial chamber in the Vale of Glamorgan
| public_access = Free
| condition = some damage
| designation1 = Scheduled monument
| designation1_number = {{Cadw|uid=3363|class=SM|num=GM008|short=yes}}
| website = 
}}

The '''St Lythans burial chamber''' ({{langx|cy|Siambr Gladdu Llwyneliddon}}) is a single stone [[megalith]]ic [[dolmen]], built around 4000 BC as part of a [[chambered long barrow]], during the mid [[Neolithic]] period, in what is now known as the [[Vale of Glamorgan]], [[Wales]].

It lies about half a mile (1&nbsp;km) to the west of the hamlet of [[St Lythans]], near [[Dyffryn Gardens]]. It also lies around one mile (1.6&nbsp;km) south of [[Tinkinswood|Tinkinswood burial chamber]], a more extensive [[Dolmen|cromlech]] that it may once have resembled, constructed during the same period.

The site is on pasture land, but pedestrian access is allowed and is free, with roadside parking available for 2–3 cars about 50 yards (50 metres) from the site.

The dolmen, which has never been fully [[excavation (archaeology)|excavated]],<ref name="Coflein1">{{Coflein|desc=St Lythans Chambered Long Cairn, Maesyfelin; Gwal-y-Filiast|num=227289|access-date=22 October 2021}}</ref> is maintained by [[Cadw]],<ref name="CADW1">{{cite web|title=About Cadw|url=http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=3&lang=en|access-date=2008-08-11|publisher=Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government|year=2008|work=Cadw website|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629171439/http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=3&lang=en|archive-date=2011-06-29}}</ref> the Welsh Historic Environment Agency.<ref name="CADW2">{{cite web|title=Places to visit: St Lythans Burial Chamber|url=http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=6&PlaceID=123|access-date=2008-08-07|publisher=Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government|year=2008|work=Cadw website}}</ref>

== Location ==
The burial chamber stands in a field, Maesyfelin (The Mill Field), often shared by a herd of cows, to the south of St Lythans Road.<ref name="Castleden1992">{{cite book|last=Castleden|first=Rodney|title=Neolithic Britain: new stone age sites of England, Scotland, and Wales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-wYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA383|access-date=1 November 2012 |year=1992|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-05845-2|page=383}}</ref> Roadside parking is maintained by [[Cadw]] (to keep/protect),<ref name="CADW1"/> the Welsh Historic Environment Agency.<ref name="CADW2"/> Access to the field, which slopes gently downwards towards the north west, is permitted, and is free, via a [[kissing gate]]. There is no wheelchair access, although there is an uninterrupted view of the site from the gate, about 50 yards (50 metres) away.

== Features ==
This [[chamber tomb]] is a [[dolmen]],<ref name="waymarking"/> the most common form of megalithic structure in Europe. It stands at the eastern end of a flat topped, 27 metres (90 feet) long, {{convert|11|m|ft}} wide earthen mound, forming part of a [[chambered long barrow]]. It is one of the [[Severn-Cotswold tomb|Severn-Cotswold]] type,<ref name="CADW2"/> and consists of a [[Cove (standing stones)|cove]] of three upright stones ([[orthostat]]s) supporting a large, flat capstone. All the stones are [[mudstone]], and, as with those used at Tinkinswood, were probably available locally.<ref name="Coflein1"/> The capstone, which slopes downwards from southeast to northwest (the left side of the entrance towards the back right), measures {{cvt|4|m}} long, {{cvt|3|m}} wide, and {{convert|0.7|m|ft|0}} thick.<ref name="Megalithic">{{cite web|title=St Lythans — Chambered Tomb in Wales in South Glamorgan|url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=1470|access-date=2008-08-03|publisher=Andy Burnham|date=2004-04-18|work=The Megalithic Portal}}</ref> The insides of the two facing, rectangular uprights have been smoothed off and there is a [[Port-hole slab|port-hole]] at the top of the triangular rear stone, similar to some other dolmens, such as at [[Trethevy Quoit]], in [[Cornwall]]. The [[Chamber tomb|burial chamber]] has a minimum internal height of {{convert|1.8|m|ft|0}} and is in an east/west alignment, with the entrance facing east.
As with most [[Dolmen|cromlechs]], it is likely that originally, the burial chamber would have had a forecourt immediately outside the entrance to the chamber and the chamber would have been covered by a mound of earth and smaller stones. This has either been eroded or removed over time, leaving only a much lower barrow behind the current structure. However, as the chamber is unusually tall, it is possible that the capstone was never fully covered.<ref name="stonepages">{{cite web|title=St Lythans chambered tomb|url=http://www.stonepages.com/wales/stlythans.html|access-date=2008-08-03|publisher=Paola Arosio and Diego Meozzi|year=1996–2003|work=Stone Pages website}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Prehistoric origins ===
From the end of the last [[ice age]] (between 10,000 and 12,000&nbsp;[[Before present|BP]]), [[mesolithic]] [[hunter-gatherers]] from [[Central Europe]] began to [[Human migration|migrate]] to [[Great Britain]]. They would have been able to walk between [[Continental Europe]] and Great Britain on [[Doggerland|dry land]], prior to the post glacial rise in sea level, up until between 6,000 and 7,000&nbsp;BP.<ref name="BBCHistory-P1">{{cite web|title=Overview: From Neolithic to Bronze Age, 8000–800 BC (Page 1 of 6)|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/overview_british_prehistory_01.shtml|access-date=2008-08-05|publisher=BBC|date=2006-09-05|work=BBC History website}}</ref> As the area was heavily wooded and movement would have been restricted, it is likely that people also came to what was to become known as [[Wales]] by boat from the [[Iberian Peninsula]].<ref name="BBCNews-Genes">{{cite news|title=Genes link Celts to Basques|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1256894.stm|access-date=2008-08-05|publisher=BBC|date=2001-04-03|work=BBC News website}}</ref> These [[neolithic]] [[Colonisation|colonists]] integrated with the indigenous people, gradually changing their lifestyles from a nomadic life of [[hunter-gatherer|hunting and gathering]], to become settled farmers. They cleared the forests to establish pasture and to cultivate the land. They built the [[long barrow]] at St Lythans around 6,000&nbsp;BP, about 1,500 years before either [[Stonehenge]] or The Egyptian [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] was completed.<ref name="Stonehenge">{{cite web|title=Your guide to Stonehenge, the World's Favourite Megalithic Stone Circle|url=http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/history.htm|access-date=2008-08-05|publisher=Longplayer SRS Ltd (trading as www.stonehenge.co.uk)|year=2008|work=Stonehenge.co.uk website}}</ref> There are over 150 other [[Dolmen|cromlech]]s all over Wales, such as [[Pentre Ifan]] in [[Pembrokeshire]] ({{lang|cy|Sir Benfro}}) and [[Bryn Celli Ddu]], on [[Anglesey]] ({{lang|cy|Ynys Môn}}), of the same period.

=== Purpose ===
[[File:St.Lythans burial chamber (geograph 4730590).jpg|left|thumb|St Lythans burial chamber, from the south west]]

As well as places to house and to honour the dead, these cromlechs may have been communal and ceremonial sites where, according to [[Francis Pryor]], people would meet "to socialise, to meet new partners, to acquire fresh livestock and to exchange ceremonial gifts".<ref name="BBCHistory-P3">{{cite web|title=Overview: From Neolithic to Bronze Age, 8000–800 BC (Page 3 of 6)|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/overview_british_prehistory_03.shtml|access-date=2008-08-05|publisher=BBC|date=2006-09-05|work=BBC History website}}</ref> The corpses of the dead were probably [[excarnation|left exposed]], before the bones were moved into the burial chamber.

=== New cultures ===
In common with the people living all over Great Britain, over the following centuries the people living around what is now known as St Lythans assimilated new immigrants and exchanged ideas of the [[Bronze Age]] and [[Iron Age]] [[Celts|Celtic]] cultures. Together with the approximate areas now known as [[Brecknockshire]], [[Monmouthshire (historic)|Monmouthshire]] and the rest of [[Glamorgan]], St Lythans was settled by a [[Celts|Celtic]] [[Britons (historic)|British]] tribe called the [[Silures]].

Although the [[Roman Britain|Roman occupation]] left no physical impression on St Lythans, its people embraced the Roman religion of [[Christianity]] and dedicated a church to St Bleddian, who had been sent to [[Sub-Roman Britain|Britain]] to stamp out the [[Pelagianism|Pelagian Heresy]].<ref name="Morgan">{{cite web|title=Pelagian Heresy|author=Michael MacKay|url=http://www.clanmorgan.net/PELAGIANHERESY.htm|access-date=2008-08-08|publisher=The Morgan Clan|date=1998-07-26|work=The Morgan Clan website}}</ref> The current Church of St Bleddian, in St Lythans, a listed grade&nbsp;II* building,<ref name="VoG">{{cite web|title=Listed Buildings in the Vale of Glamorgan|url=http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/files/Living/Planning/Policy/Listed_Buildings/Listed_Buildings_10_06.pdf|access-date=2008-08-04|publisher=Vale of Glamorgan Council|date=2006-09-26|work=Vale of Glamorgan Council Planning website}}</ref> known locally as St Lythan's Church, was built about {{frac|2|3}}&nbsp;mile (about 1&nbsp;km) to the east of this site and has an ancient [[Taxus baccata|yew tree]] in the churchyard.

=== Recent local history ===
[[File:Eglwys Sain Bleddian.JPG|right|thumb|300px|St Lythans Church]]
In the 16th century, the manor was acquired by the Button family, who built the first house about {{convert|500|yd|km|1}} north west of the [[tumulus]]. The Manor's name was changed to [[Dyffryn Gardens|Dyffryn St Nicholas]] and the house rebuilt in the 18th century, when the estate was purchased by [[Thomas Pryce]].
Commenting on St Lythans in his 'A Topographical Dictionary of The Dominion of Wales', London, 1811, [[Nicholas Carlisle]], says "The Resident Population of this Parish, in 1801, was 72. It is 6m. W.&nbsp;S.W. from Caerdiff (sic)." and notes that "Here is a Druidical Altar."<ref name="GENUKI">{{cite web|title=GENUKI: St. Lythans|url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/StLythans/|access-date=2008-08-03|publisher=GENUKI|date=2007-07-17|work=GENUKI website}}</ref> By 1831 the population had grown by over 50% ("Lythan's, St. (St. Lythian), a parish in the hundred of Dinas-Powis, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, {{convert|6|mi}} (W.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;W.) from Cardiff, containing 103 inhabitants.") and Dyffryn House was being used as "a school for all the poor children of this parish".  By now, the dolmen had been correctly identified: "There is a cromlech on St. Lythan's common." (From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' by Samuel Lewis, 1833).<ref name="GENUKI"/>
Census records show that St Lythans' population fluctuated between 81 (1881) and 136 (1861) over the rest of the 19th century.<ref name="GENUKI"/>  In 1939, the Dyffryn Estate was leased to the [[Glamorgan|Glamorgan County Council]] for 999&nbsp;years.<ref name="Dyffryn">{{cite web|title=History of the Dyffryn Estate: History of the House and Gardens|url=http://www.val.t.caple.care4free.net/Dyffryn/Page2/index.html|access-date=2008-08-05|publisher=The Friends of Dyffryn Gardens|year=2001|work=Dyffryn Gardens website}}</ref>

== Local folklore ==
St Lythans Burial Chamber is also known as ''Gwâl y Filiast'' ({{langx|en|The Greyhound Bitch's Kennel}})&nbsp;— the site had been used as an animal shelter in the early 19th century<ref name="stonepages"/>&nbsp;– and ''Maes y Felin'' (The Mill Field), apparently from the legend that, each [[Midsummer]]'s Eve, the capstone spins around three times and all the stones go to the nearby river to bathe.<ref name="stonepages"/><ref name="stonecircles">{{cite web|title=St Lythans chambered long barrow|url=http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/stlythans.htm|access-date=2008-08-08|publisher=Chris Collyer|year=2008|work=Stone Circles website}}</ref>  The [[Dolmen|cromlech]] stands in a field known as the "Accursed Field", so called due to its supposed infertility. However, [[Julian Cope]] (born about {{convert|25|mi|km}} to the north, in [[Deri, Caerphilly]]) has suggested the name may have derived from "Field O'Koeur".<ref name="stonecircles"/> The name could be a variant of the Arthurian legend of Culhwch and Olwen, which appears in two fourteenth-century Welsh texts, but the site itself is very much older dating from the Neolithic period, some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/stlythansburialchamber/?lang=en|title=St Lythans Burial Chamber|website=CADW - Welsh Government}}</ref>

== Analysis of contemporary local sites ==
Few human remains survive from this period, [[Prehistoric Britain|the early Neolithic]] (c 6400&nbsp;BP–5300&nbsp;BP), although they are comparatively well preserved in the [[Black Mountains, Wales|Black Mountains]], [[Gower Peninsula|Gower]] and the [[Vale of Glamorgan]], where up to 50 individuals, of all ages, have been interred&nbsp;— men, women and children&nbsp;— in each cromlech.
Minor excavation was carried out at St Lythans by [[William Collings Lukis]] in 1875. However his notes are regarded as "poorly-recorded".<ref name="Coflein1"/> A report noted in 1976 that "Human remains and coarse pottery were found in 1875 in the debris thrown out from the interior, which partly fills the hollow of the original forecourt in the E (sic) end of the mound."<ref name="Coflein1"/> Some surface finds from the cromlech are held in the [[St Fagans National History Museum]], Cardiff. They are a fine leaf-shaped flint arrowhead, a fragment of polished stone axe and several flight flakes. Conservation work was carried out on the eroded barrow in 1992–93, when soil and turfs were replaced to cover the exposed areas.
The St Lythans site has not yet been fully excavated. However, results from excavations of other sites are worth noting:

=== Parc Cwm long cairn ===
Musculoskeletal analysis of the human remains found at [[Parc Cwm long cairn]] ({{lang|cy|carn hir Parc Cwm}}), Gower, has shown significant gender lifestyle variation. Male muscular development is greater&nbsp;— possibly from hunting or herding. In contrast, no such variation was noticeable in the remains found during the [[Excavation (archaeology)|excavation]] from the nearby [[Tinkinswood|Tinkinswood burial chamber]].<ref>History of Wales, 25,000&nbsp;BC  AD&nbsp;2000, Prys Morgan (Ed), 2001, Tempus, {{ISBN|0-7524-1983-8}}, p 20</ref>

=== Goldsland Wood ===
Remains from seven neolithic humans have been excavated from a cave at [[Goldsland]] Wood, [[Wenvoe]], near the cromlech at St Lythans, together with pottery and flint blades dating from between 5,000 and 5,600&nbsp;BP. Although there is no evidence to show that the bones relate to the site, it is thought that the corpses had been placed there until they had decomposed. The skeletons would then have been removed to sites such as the St Lythans Burial Chamber<ref name="uclan">{{cite web|title=Students Find 5,000 Year Old Human Remains |url=http://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/2005/web105.htm |access-date=2008-08-07 |publisher=University of Central Lancashire |date=2005-08-25 |work=University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070307213829/http://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/2005/web105.htm |archive-date=March 7, 2007 }}</ref>
or the [[Tinkinswood|Tinkinswood Burial Chamber]]. This appears to be the sole site found in Britain where corpses have been left to rot prior to placement in communal tombs. Most of the remains recovered were small pieces of jaw, fingers or toes.<ref name="lancsarchsoc">{{cite web|title=Excavations at Goldsland Wood Caves, Cardiff|author=Richard Peterson (UCLAN)|url=http://www.lancsarchsoc.org.uk/programmelisting0809.htm|access-date=2008-08-07|publisher=Lancashire Archaeological Society|date=2008-03-14|work=Lancashire Archaeological Society website}}</ref>
The Tinkinswood site contained human remains and pottery dating to the early [[Bronze Age]], showing that such sites were used over many generations.

== See also ==
* [[Prehistoric Britain]]
* [[Standing stone]]
* [[Hunter-gatherers]]
* [[Neolithic Europe]]
* [[Long barrow]]
* [[Cove (standing stones)]]
* [[Cairn]]
* [[Tumulus]]
* [[Britons (historic)]]
* [[List of Cadw properties]]
* [[Welsh placenames]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
* [[Douglass W. Bailey]],  ''Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic.'' (Routledge Publishers, 2005) {{ISBN|0-415-33152-8}}.
* [[Peter Bellwood]],  ''First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies.'' (Blackwell Publishers, 2004) {{ISBN|0-631-20566-7}}
* [[Timothy Darvill]], "Long Barrows of the Cotswolds and surrounding areas" (Publisher: Tempus Publishing, 2004) {{ISBN|0-7524-2907-8}}
* [[Prys Morgan]] (Ed), "History of Wales 25,000 B.C. A.D. 2000" (Publisher: Tempus Publishing, 2001) {{ISBN|0-7524-1983-8}}
* [[Frances Lynch]], "Megalithic Tombs and Long Barrows in Britain" (Publisher: Shire Publications Ltd, 1997) {{ISBN|0-7478-0341-2}}
* [[A. Caseldine]], "Environmental Archaeology in Wales" (Publisher: Lampeter: St David's University College Department of Archaeology, 1990)
* [[Paul Ashbee]], "The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain: An Introduction to the Study of the Funerary Practice and Culture of the Neolithic People of the Third Millennium B.C." (Publisher: Geo Books, 1984) {{ISBN|0-86094-170-1}}
* [[Ian Hodder]]  ''Burials, houses, women and men in the European Neolithic'', D Miller and C Tilley (eds), ''Architecture and Order'' (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1984)
* [[Mark Nathan Cohen]], ''The Food Crisis in Prehistory: Overpopulation and the Origins of Agriculture.'' (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977) {{ISBN|0-300-02016-3}}.
* {{Megalithic Portal|1470}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|St Lythans burial chamber}}
* [http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/daysout/stlythansburialchamber/?lang=en Cadw Page]
* [https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/227289/ ST LYTHANS CHAMBERED LONG CAIRN], Coflein: RCAHMW
* [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=1470 St Lythans&nbsp;– Chambered Tomb] at www.megalithic.co.uk
* [http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/stlythans.htm St. Lythans Neolithic Chambered Long Barrow] at www.stone-circles.org.uk
* [https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=3947706 Photos of St Lythans and surrounding area on geograph]

{{Long Barrows in Britain}}
{{Vale of Glamorgan}}
{{European megaliths}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stlythansburialchamber}}
[[Category:Archaeological sites in the Vale of Glamorgan]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in the Vale of Glamorgan]]
[[Category:Cadw]]
[[Category:Dolmens in Wales]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC]]
[[Category:Monuments and memorials in the Vale of Glamorgan]]
[[Category:Tumuli in Wales]]