Plastic waste found by archaeologists at Pembrokeshire hill-fort
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image copyrightUniversity of Liverpool
image captionWrappers from well known chocolate bars and snacks were among 2,000 items found trampled into the ground
It was not what archaeologists at an ancient Welsh hill-fort expected to find - a mountain of plastic.
Academics uncovered more than 2,000 items at the Castell Henllys site in Pembrokeshire.
But these were not ancient artefacts - they were discarded food wrappers and bottle tops from old school lunches.
University of Liverpool researchers said future archaeologists may now well refer to our modern times as the Plastic Age.
The discoveries were made by a team led by Harold Mytum, and their findings published in the academic journal Antiquity.
The new study published in the journal
Antiquity explains that Castell Henllys is a well-excavated hillfort in Wales which dates back to the late first millennium BC, in the Iron Age. In the 1980s, two experimental reconstructions of Iron Age roundhouses were built at the site. They were built on top of the locations of real Iron Age roundhouses and their construction was based on archaeological evidence recovered from the site.
Castell Henllys. A view showing the entrance to one of the completed round houses in 1988. (Malcolm Neal/
)
The roundhouses have been key features of the heritage site, but health and safety concerns ordered that they could not simply be refurbished after 30 years, the roundhouse replicas had to be dismantled and rebuilt. In 2017/2018, the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park called in researchers to excavate the dismantled roundhouses. Originally, the archaeologists were interested in investigating the remains of the reconstructed Iron Age roundho
| UPDATED: 15:10, Fri, Jan 8, 2021
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The archaeological disaster was uncovered by a team from the University of Liverpool at Castell Henlyss in The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, southwest Wales. Castell Henlyss is one of Britain s most iconic archaeological sites and open-air museums that allows visitors to walk among meticulously reconstructed Iron Age roundhouses - exactly as they stood some 2,000 years ago. The site was built in the 1980s using the same materials and techniques Castell Henlyss s ancient residents would have used
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University of Liverpool archaeologists carrying out an Iron Age experiment in Wales have instead uncovered the ‘Plastic Age’ – the plastic dominated archaeology left behind by modern society.
The researchers were investigating the remains of reconstructed Iron Age roundhouses built on the original sites at Castell Henllys Iron Age fort.
These had been open to visitors for over 30 years, hosting hundreds of school days out, before being dismantled at the end of their life.It was hoped excavating these structures would shed light on the decay process and how it impacts archaeological preservation.
However, the more dramatic discovery, published in the journal
Crowds descended on the Brecon Beacons today despite Welsh police and park authorities urging people to stick to stringent lockdown rules.
Hikers and families with sledges defied pleas from officials and headed to the snow-blanketed Storey Arms beauty spot, wrapping up for the crisp wintry weather.
Brecon Beacons authorities have expressly told people to follow stay at home orders and not come to the site. Wales is in lockdown with only essential travel permitted, therefore people are unable to drive to visit any of the Welsh National Parks, reads the instruction.
Hikers defied pleas from officials and headed to the Storey Arms beauty spot, wrapping up for the crisp wintry weather