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An Archaeological Investigation of Early Mineworkings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth: New Evidence for Prehistoric Mining

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Simon Timberlake  and
Roy Switsur
Simon Timberlake
Affiliation:
Geological Museum, Exhibition Rd., London SW7 2DE
Roy Switsur
Affiliation:
Godwin Laboratory, Sub-Department of Quaternary Research, Free School La., Cambridge CB2 3RS
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Extract

In September 1986 a small excavation was done by S. T. to investigate an area of primitive-style mine-workings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Dyfed (SN816756). A small opencast and several overgrown tips associated with pebble hammers occur where the copper-rich Comet Lode outcrops on the brow of the hill. Copa Hill is within an area of seventeenth–twentieth-century lead-mine workings which extend for 1.2 km along the N side of the Ystwyth Valley (fig. 1). Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from within one of the tips suggests that mining commenced in the middle Bronze Age.

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Other
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Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , 1988 , pp. 329 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1988

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