ARCHAEOLOGISTS are planning a dig in the Aeron Valley next month to uncover more of Ceredigion’s hidden history.

Staff and students from the university in Lampeter will be joined by volunteers from the local community, and a few special guests, for the dig in Talsarn, which is part of the Portalis project.

Between 24 April and 26 May, Elin Jones, MS, and Ben Lake, MP, will be amongst a number of participants to join forces with UWTSD archaeological experts as they return to excavate a site near Talsarn.

In 2022, led by Professor Martin Bates, the UWTSD Portalis team of researchers, students and community volunteers discovered numerous artefacts, including a series of stone tools that dated back to a time before farmers arrived in Ceredigion; a period archaeologists call the Mesolithic.

Alongside these works the UWTSD/ Portalis archaeological team have also been conducting analyses of cores taken close to the site, where peats are present in areas that would have been wet in the past. The team now know that these peats date back nearly 12,000 years ago and contain a record of changing vegetation that documents not only the very early post-glacial period but also records changes associated with the Iron Age.

Professor Martin Bates, UWTSD Lead Academic on the Portalis project said: “We are starting to really begin to understand the landscapes of lowland Ceredigion in a way that hasn’t been done before. We can clearly see at Talsarn, as well as our other study sites at Llanrhystud and Borth, the impact of our ancestors on the vegetation and we can begin to speculate on how these early peoples used these places at various times in the past.”

Portalis Post-doctoral Researcher, Dr Samantha Brummage, added: "Llanllyr is one of very few Mesolithic sites to be excavated in Ceredigion - our work here is giving us an exciting and unique opportunity to understand early prehistory in this region."

The 2023 excavation promises to deliver even more discoveries. If you want to take part then you can join UWTSD Portalis archaeologists in the field.

Project staff are excavating until late May and volunteers are welcomed Monday to Friday from 24 April to 5 May and on a Friday only from 12 to 26 May. Click here to register and join the exciting project.

Furthermore, if you are a school/college or a group you can sign up to tour the site and learn more about archaeology and the history of the Aeron Valley, click here

Portalis is a cross-border, transdisciplinary pilot project that explores the earliest connection between Ireland and Wales. Supported by the European Regional Development Fund, through the Ireland Wales programme, Portalis maps the story of the first human journey between Ireland and Wales, dating back to the Mesolithic period.

This will be achieved by consolidating existing evidence with new data to develop a powerful new cross-border narrative, accessible within a new visitor experience at Waterford Museum of Treasures, Ireland, and Ceredigion Museum, Wales.

The €1.95 million project, supported by €1.5m from by the European Regional Development Fund- through the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme- aims to raise awareness and support community and business sustainable engagement, resulting in the establishment of two new experiential tourism and cultural networks in Ireland and Wales.