Signs of Ancient Warfare in Cardiff

Artifacts that indicate a history of ancient warfare have recently been discovered at a site in Cardiff. These signs hint at the presence of Neolithic society at the site well over five thousand years ago, showing that it may have been the former location for a prehistoric community or even the site of prehistoric battle. Whether these artifacts are remnants of ancient warfare or simple society, archaeologists visiting the site have become fascinated by what they have found.

The team researching the area was expecting to make a big find, but they were mistaken about the time period from which it came. Searching around the site of a former hill fort, they expected any discoveries to be from medieval times, or maybe a few hundred years prior. Instead, they found potential signs of ancient warfare that appears to have occurred several millennia ago. Although they know that the site was definitely used during the Iron Age, the arrowheads and other tools that they have discovered are from several thousand years before the Common Era began, which places them over a thousand years before the beginning of the Iron Age in Europe.

Arrowheads are far from the only weapon pieces that have been discovered at the fort. They have also founds pieces of axes as well as other vital tools that have been carved out of stone. Many are suspecting, due to the variety of tools found, that ancient warfare and peaceful living are not mutually exclusive possibilities. In fact, they are becoming relatively certain that there was definitely some form of agricultural society located at the dig site, and that their land eventually became the setting for a major battle, the Culture 24 reports.

Other possibilities that archaeologists have put forth is that this is not simply the site of a small community, but rather a small part of a much larger settlement. This idea actually interests them much more than the notion of ancient warfare, as less than half a dozen similar locations have been discovered in Wales to date. Although the state in which many weapon fragments have been left suggests a violent battle, they believe that the location was primarily used for more festive occasions.

The majority of theories currently posited by archaeologists suggest that ancient warfare was possibly limited to one major occurrence. Future discoveries may help to flesh out the precise history of the settlement, but so far their best guess is that a number of people used to peacefully inhabit the land while using the site of the hill fort for festivities until, for one reason or another, ancient warfare broke out and the site was likely abandoned.

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Ian Harvey

Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE