"The excavations in Llanymynech provided some interesting and exciting evidence into the ancient people living in this area. We already knew before this work that there were important archaeological remains buried beneath the soil.

Several years ago, the site next door uncovered half of a burial mound, sometimes called a barrow, and some pits and post-holes dating to the Bronze Age (around 3500 years old). The other half of this feature is what we have now excavated recently.

As planning permission for the new houses on the site was approved, our job was to excavate and record all the archaeology on the site before construction could begin. This happened following instructions from the Council and Galliers Homes.

Archaeology is now seen by Councils, Archaeological Units and Developers, as an important resource that needs to be properly considered before any development.

As excavations continued, it became clear that this site was becoming more and more important. Several stone lined pits were discovered cut into the ground filled with fragmented human bone.

These features are called Cist burials and 4 of these were found close to the Barrow monument. We suspect these are of a similar date. The human remains from these are now being examined by a specialist.

Further exciting discoveries were made when we excavated the Barrow, or in particular the ring ditch that surrounded it. In the Bronze Age, the burial mound would have had a ditch around it. This would create a more visually imposing monument.

Over time this ditch would gradually silt up until it is all full again. This would take many years. What we discovered is that at a time were the ditch had almost complete silted up, a number of stones were placed around the burial mound at regular intervals creating a sort of stone circle around the monument.

As yet this sequence of events has not been recorded before on a site of this age and makes this extremely important. It tells us that this site was an important ritual site for a very long time, as even when the ditch had silted up the site was important enough to the people that they then built a stone circle.

Archaeologists are still visiting the site during the construction of the houses in case any further evidence is revealed. In the meantime, all the data from the work is now being examined by specialists."

Article by Kevin Colls