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Prehistoric Rock Art on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common is a Bronze Age cup marked stone located on moorland in Wales. The monument comprises a natural rock surface bearing cup marks—shallow, roughly circular depressions pecked into the stone by prehistoric metalworkers or their contemporaries. Such rock art is thought to date to the Bronze Age, when similar marked stones appear across Britain and northern Europe, though their precise purpose remains debated amongst archaeologists.
The stone sits upon bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, a Westphalian-age sequence of mudstones, siltstones, sandstones, coal seams, ironstone and ferricrete deposits. This geological setting reflects the industrial heritage of South Wales, though the Bronze Age community who created the cup marks would have perceived and used the landscape very differently from later mining populations.
The site is protected by Cadw, the Welsh heritage monuments authority, under reference GM628. Cup marked stones remain comparatively rare in Wales, making this example of particular significance for understanding Bronze Age artistic and ritual practice in the Welsh uplands. The monument survives on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common as evidence of prehistoric human activity in this moorland environment.
Prehistoric Rock Art on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM628. View the official record →
Prehistoric Rock Art on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common is a Bronze Age cup marked stone located on moorland in Wales. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference GM628.
Prehistoric Rock Art on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common dates from the bronze age period, and is classified as a cup marked stone. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Prehistoric Rock Art on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is GM628.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Tomen y Clawdd (6 km), The Pottery, Nantgarw (6.9 km), Tarren Deusant Sculptured Rock & Spring (7.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Prehistoric Rock Art on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Prehistoric Rock Art on Mynydd Eglwysilan Common stands on South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.