Chapter 2
PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE ABERDARE VALLEY

1. Old Stone Age Man.

The story of Old Stone Age Man in Wales is at least 50,000 years old, and possibly earlier (Glyn Daniel, “Wales Through the Ages”. p.12).

The best evidence for the existence of Palaeolithic man in Wales comes from the rock shelters or caves in which ancient man lived, such as Paviland cave, in the Gower, Glamorgan.

From the animal bones in the Paviland cave, we can form a good idea of what these early men hunted: wild horse, cave bear, wild ox, woolly rhinoceros reindeer, mammoth and hyena. These animals were the fauna of open tundra or grasslands and tend to be migratory. As the hunters of Paviland lived on the edge of both plain and upland, it is quite possible that in the long epoch of the Palaeolithic age that they visited the uplands of Glamorgan where the bare mountains and morainic lakes provided ideal hunting and fishing country. Paviland man probably had open-air sites in the uplands of South Wales in the summer retreating to the caves on the coming of winter.

2. Neolithic Man.

Using the technique of radiocarbon dating, (Prof. Willard Libby – 1949), we can say that the first Neolithic men came to Wales about 2500 B.C. They came from the Wessex area and had knowledge of agriculture and pottery. Later Neolithic peoples came from France and Spain. These built the impressive stone tombs found in various parts of lowland Glamorgan. Other peoples came from Brittany and the Loire districts of France. Prof. Daniel believes that they were prospectors for tin and copper, which they found in Cornwall and Ireland. (“Wales Through the Ages”. pp. 14–15).

After the coming of the cromlechau builders, there came into Glamorgan from the east another of the Neolithic peoples. These were called the Beaker Folk because of the practice of placing in their graves a small red drinking cup. They buried their dead in single graves. All that is known of these people comes from their tombs. Of their settlements nothing is known.

In Penderyn, at the source of the Cynon and the beginning of the Aberdare valley, a grave was found containing items showing it to be a Beaker Folk burial ground.

Prof. V. Gordon Childe in his book “What Happened in History” writes about the semi-nomadism of Neolithic societies by the exhaustion of the soil. He goes on: “the simplest escape is to move on and start again on virgin soil,” pp.50–51.

There are some indications of Neolithic peoples in the area of the Aberdare valley but it is possible assuming the nomadic nature of his life that he sent his flocks in the spring to the mountains of Glamorgan and took a snatch crop of cereals here and there, but made his more permanent sojourn in the lowlands where he conducted his religious ceremonies and made his giant tombs.

3. Bronze Age Peoples.

The Bronze Age started in Britain about 2000 B.C.
(Prof. W.F. Grimes, “Wales Through the Ages,” p.18).

By 1000 B.C., he is of the opinion that most of southern Britain and Wales had entered the Bronze Age. Middle Bronze Age peoples penetrated into Glamorgan and their remains have been found at Breach Farm near Cowbridge.

On the industrial side, the people of the Middle Bronze Age made astonishing advances in the technique of making axes, knives and spears. A hoard of these tools and weapons was found at the head of the Aberdare valley in 1912 at the Llyn Fawr (Great Lake). It contained ordinary objects but also rare articles like harness fittings, socketed sickles, razors, two large sheet-metal cauldrons.

The most interesting thing about the Llyn Fawr hoard is that it contained iron objects that show that the settlement is at the turn from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Wales. There are also traces of Irish influences in the objects. (W.V. Grimes. pp.19–20).

4. The Iron Age Peoples.

Some time after 500 B.C., the Bronze Age finally gave way to the Iron Age. The iron-using people came to Britain in three main invasions and there is growing evidence that all three are represented in Wales. (Grimes –“Wales Through the Ages,” pp.21–22).

The Iron Age culture of the La Tène type is found in the Gower, the Vale of Glamorgan and in Anglesey. Prof. Grimes has no doubt that the hill forts of Wales belong to the La Tène type. Their distribution shows how the people who built them colonized the country.

Iron Age of the Belgae type: These peoples were spreading into Wales in the period 100 B.C., and were only stopped by the coming of the Romans.

The peoples of Britain and Wales just before the coming of the Romans were a warlike people, living in fortified encampments on hilltops in thickly wooded countryside. In the shelter of their earth and timber strongholds, they built their round wooden houses with thatched roofs. Women would sit at doorways making crude pottery from local clays or spinning woollen yarn. Herds and flocks gave meat, and corn was grown. Milk, beer and mead were drunk. The men were both farmers and warriors. They loved brightly coloured clothes; they had skill in making weapons of iron, or harness of bronze. In battle they used blue paint, and fought on foot or in chariots. Politically they existed in small independent kingdoms. They had gold coinage. They had a pantheon of gods and heroes. Their priests were called Druids and they wielded great influence.

5. Prehistoric Remains in the Aberdare District.

There are several small barrows to the north of Dyllas on the Swansea to Merthyr road. (“The Story of Merthyr Tydfil,” N.U.T. pp.26–28).