Last November during the hawthorn tree removal at the chamber entrance in trench 14 of the Caer Alyn Archaeological and Heritage Project, a boulder that appeared to be decorated with a cup mark was uncovered. This boulder had been the subject of much speculation and discussion among some of the excavators, so it was agreed to call in Professor George Nash, a world renowned rock art expert and enthusiast. He visited Caer Alyn and confirmed that we did have a fine example of a decorated boulder. It does, in fact, have three cup marks on it, probably dated to early Bronze Age.
     This gives archaeologists a bit of a puzzle: is the boulder a random decorated boulder that has been taken from a bigger local panel and re-used as part of the trench 14 wall or was it placed there on purpose?  Either way, the discovery is very exciting as rock art is not recorded in North East Wales and is uncommon in North Wales in general.
     An in-depth report of the excavation can be downloaded from tinyurl.com/yksspcc

Source: Caer Alyn (26 November 2009)