Bryn yr Hen Bobl
Also known asBryn-yr-Hen-Bobl Burial Chamber
Datedc. 2525–2457 BCE
Photo RobinLeicester · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Bryn yr Hen Bobl (Welsh for 'hill of the old people') is a chambered cairn on the island of Anglesey, Wales, near the Menai Strait. It is a scheduled monument, and radiocarbon dating gives a range of 2525 to 2457 BCE.
Excavations in the 1920s and 1930s revealed a complicated structure whose form is unique in Britain. The chamber held the bones of at least 20 people.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Bryn yr Hen Bobl
The monument lies 35 m above sea level on farmland at the eastern edge of the island, near the Menai Strait.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument lies 35 m above sea level on farmland at the eastern edge of the island, near the Menai Strait.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument survived as a large, shapeless earth mound with a poorly preserved chamber. Its form is unique in Britain. The chamber lies within a kidney-shaped stone mound that is stabilised by internal drystone walls. The single chamber had a forecourt on the west. The portal stone has two natural holes, but they are too small to have allowed access to the small rectangular chamber, which is two metres long and one metre wide. The split capstone, of conglomerate, measured about 3.0 m × 2.0 m.
The forecourt was bordered by drystone walling. At the side a narrow, elongated terrace runs 100 m to the south. A neighbouring chambered tomb lies nearby at Plas Newydd.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was excavated in the 1920s and 1930s, which revealed its complicated structure.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
Hearths and pottery were found in the forecourt. The chamber contained unburnt but broken human and animal bones and a bone needle; the bones came from at least 20 people.
The old ground surface beneath the monument yielded considerable quantities of pottery, human and animal bones, and many flint cores, flakes and arrowheads. Flakes of Graig Lwyd stone (from a mine in Conwy County Borough) were also found, as were four polished stone axes. Other finds were a bone, a stone ball, bowls and a stone with a pecked triangle.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
A chambered cairn is a stone mound over one or more burial chambers, entered by a passage.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Orkney, Caithness and Scottish chambered cairns
Scotland, and above all Orkney and Caithness, has many Neolithic tombs. A chambered cairn is a stone mound over one or more burial chambers, entered by a passage. Maeshowe on Mainland Orkney was probably built around 2800 BCE, and gives its name to the Maeshowe type of cairn, which is limited to Orkney; its entrance passage is about 11 metres long, and sunlight enters it at the winter solstice and reaches the rear wall of the chamber. It is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. In the twelfth century Norse visitors broke in through the roof and left runic inscriptions inside.
Orkney also has the Quoyness cairn on Sanday, built about 3000 BCE and similar in design to Maeshowe, where the remains of several people were found in 1867. Unstan, on a promontory into the Loch of Stenness, is an atypical hybrid of the two main types of Orkney cairn and gave its name to Unstan ware, a type of pottery. The Tomb of the Eagles at Isbister on South Ronaldsay stands on a cliff edge.
On the mainland, the Grey Cairns of Camster in Caithness are two large chambered cairns dating to around 3000 BCE, among the oldest structures in Scotland, with central chambers reached by narrow passages. They were excavated and restored by Historic Environment Scotland and are open to the public.
Dating rests on radiocarbon dates from bone and on pottery, but many cairns were opened by antiquarians in the nineteenth century before records were kept. The Atlas gives a typological range of the fourth to third millennium BCE for most.
When visiting, check access in advance, since some cairns have narrow passages and others are open only at set times.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Chambered cairn, Wikipedia: Maes Howe, Wikipedia: Quoyness chambered cairn, Wikipedia: Unstan chambered cairn, Wikipedia: Isbister Chambered Cairn, Wikipedia: Midhowe Chambered Cairn, Wikipedia: Grey Cairns of Camster · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs
4 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
2525–2457 BCEHow this date was established: Radiocarbon dating1 radiocarbon date in the p3k14c database (Bird et al. 2022, Scientific Data 9:27 (p3k14c radiocarbon database)), 4441 ± 34 BP; uncalibrated age, shown as calendar years with the conventional BP + 1950 conversion.Source for this date
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 53°11′50″ N, 4°13′07″ WFor a GPS or map app: 53.19736, -4.21861
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Plas Newydd Burial Chambers4000–2500 BCE
Bryn Celli Ddu Cairn (Plough Levelled)4000–800 BCE
Site of Cairn South of Bryn Celli Ddu4000–800 BCE
برين كللي ددو1950–1850 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Bryn-Celli-Ddu Standing Stone2800–1800 BCE
Tyddyn-Bach Standing Stone2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Coed Nant-y-garth, standing stone to N of2800–1800 BCE
Brynsiencyn Round Barrow4000–800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q995256wikidata.org
- 02Source for this datep3k14c.org
Image files
- Bryn-yr-Hen-Bobl Burial Chamber, Plas Newydd, Anglesey.jpgRobinLeicesterCC BY-SA 4.0
- Bryn yr Hen Bobl - geograph.org.uk - 3710614.jpgIan CapperCC BY-SA 2.0
- Bryn yr Hen Bobl Burial Chamber. - geograph.org.uk - 1276758.jpgRay WestCC BY-SA 2.0
- Bryn yr Hen Bobl Burial Chamber. - geograph.org.uk - 1276789.jpgRay WestCC BY-SA 2.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Plas Newydd Burial Chambers0.7 km N
- Bryn Celli Ddu Cairn (Plough Levelled)1.6 km NW
- Site of Cairn South of Bryn Celli Ddu1.6 km NW
- برين كللي ددو1.6 km NW
- Bryn-Celli-Ddu Standing Stone1.7 km NW
- Tyddyn-Bach Standing Stone2.1 km NW
- Coed Nant-y-garth, standing stone to N of2.4 km E
- Brynsiencyn Round Barrow3.7 km SW
- Ty Mawr Burial Chamber3.7 km NE
- Ty Mawr Burial Chamber3.7 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bryn yr Hen Bobl" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (German): Bryn yr Hen BoblCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q995256CC0