Progress Report: November 9, 1999

November 9, 1999

Barr and Sutton rose at dawn for an early start.  With the intention of finishing the terrestrial survey by noon, they headed for the field at 7AM.   Upon arrival, they discovered that the sheep roaming the pasture to the east of the site had an appetite for more than grass.  The foreshot and backshot datums had mysteriously disappeared.  Unable to find the culprits, they re-established the datum points, and started from scratch.  After 121 shots, they had collected the necessary data for the entire site.

Following a morning of shopping the local markets, the rest of the crew arrived on site at 1PM.  Saum and Ben Hollyfield began tracing the course of the stone conduit in the "chapel" by removing loose rubble.  In the doorway adjacent to the originally cleared conduit, their efforts exposed a collection of stoneware.  To preserve the site's integrity, they halted their investigation, and turned to mapping the floor of the chapel. 

In finishing the survey, Barr and Sutton encountered a few difficulties in tracing the Roman road.  Expanses of wall may be distinguished along the middle of the existing track.  Whether this wall represents the north or south boundary of the original road is debatable.  To the south of the wall, the existing bank is steep and precarious, suggesting that a retaining wall may exist beneath.  This hypothesized wall may have been erected purely for erosion control, or perhaps it originally served as the south boundary of the road.  On the other hand, to the north, a fieldstone wall runs the course of the far side of the drainage that parallels the track.  Uphill to the northwest, the wall is largely intact, while downhill its condition deteriorates.  The ambiguity of the road's boundaries merits further investigation, beginning with analysis of the exposed masonry.

In the northwest corner of the property, an ovular mound may be discerned, roughly 20 meters across and 25 meters long.  On the eastern edge of the mound, erosion has exposed a two meter stretch of stone wall.  Also, a seemingly rectangular stonework feature lies to the northeast of the mound. Further investigation is needed to determine the significance of these features.

By afternoon's end, the chapel floor plan had been mapped.  Also, Cecile Hollyfield and Sutton had compiled a comprehensive photographic record of the interior of the masonry tower.

On the way home, the crew visited a local Norman castle to acquire comparative data.  According to local lore, the Normans communicated between this castle and Llgadwy's masonry tower using signal fires.   Upon inspection, the crew was struck by the similarity of the Norman castle's first floor masonry with that of the second floor in the masonry tower.  The corbels and sockets of the castle also resemble those of the masonry tower.  These observations lend viablility to the legend's accuracy, while appearing to confirm the earlier date of Llgadwy's masonry tower.

Two full days remain, and an urgency to finish our stated objectives has obsessed the crew.  Completion of our research, mapping, and web site will require a total commitment for the next 48 hours.   

Note:  These investigations are ongoing, and updates will be posted as time permits.  Assessments made during the course of this survey are preliminary, and may change upon the recovery of further data.