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[Diego]

A recent excavation programme at a standing stone known as Trefael, near Newport (south-west Wales) has revealed that what originally was a portal dolmen in later times was transformed in a standing stone, probably used as a ritual marker to guide communities through a scared landscape.
      This solitary stone has over 75 cupmarks gouged onto its upper surface.  Following the complete exposure of the capstone through excavation, it is now considered by several astronomers that the distribution of the cupmarks may represent a section of the night sky that includes the star constellations of Cassiopeia, Orion, Sirius and of course the North Star.  
      Until recently, little was known about this stone. About 40 years ago archaeologists had speculated that it may have once formed a capstone which would have covered a small burial chamber. In order to prove or disprove this, a geophysical survey was undertaken, the results of which revealed the remains of a kidney-shaped anomaly, possibly the remnants of the cairn that would have once surrounded the chamber, with an entrance to the east.
      Following this exciting discovery, a targeted excavation confirmed the site to be a portal dolmen, revealing also a significant cairn deposit within the eastern and northern sections of the trench. Uniquely, a clear vertical cut was found in section, running parallel with the dip of the former capstone suggesting that the cairn had been excavated into and the capstone set and packed within the existing cairn, probably used as a standing stone during the Early Bronze Age (c. 2000-1700 cal. BCE) when Western Britain was introduced to a new set of burial-ritual monuments.  
      Finds were not unexpectedly meagre and included medieval and post-medieval pottery sherds and two Mesolithic shale beads; identical to those found at the nearby Mesolithic coastal settlement of Nab Head.
      Further investigations planned for Summer 2011 will include palaeo-environmental sampling in order to assess the later prehistoric landscape setting, a contour survey of the monument and further excavation to the rear of the stone.
      
Edited from George Nash PR





Article on Stone Pages News: http://www.stonepage...ves/004126.html

[tiompan]

I like the question mark .Looking forward to the drawings .It will be a first if it is as promised .My guess is that it is more likely a case of apophenia .Some problems that come to mind  from the limited amount of info .  Orion has 7 stars Cassio 5 Sirius and the pole star gives a total of 14 from 70  .Do the remainder fit ? If Sirius is there where is Aldebaran , the belt points to both , Procion and Rigel are also prominent  around Orion , are they also missing ? At the time of build of Portal tombs the pole star was Thuban which was quite faint , would it really have been viewed as important enough to mark and is there a relationship between magnitude and size of cup (Frankie Howard )?
George