Cors Caron is an important site in archaeology. Plant pollen preserved in the bog tells scientists which plants once grew here. Archaeologists use this information to reconstruct landscapes, climate changes, and to understand how people used to live and use their environment.
People have been living here for over 8,000 years. While evidence of early people is rare, stone tools from the Mesolithic, 12,000-6,400 years ago, and tools like arrowheads from the Neolithic, 6,400-4,300 years ago, provide links to daily life in the distant past. Many of these items are held in Aberystwyth’s Ceredigion Museum.
Clearer evidence for people living here around 4,000 years ago appears in what archaeologists call burnt mounds. These mounds of heat-shattered stones and charcoal are the result of heated stones dropped into troughs of water to bring it to boil. These are thought to be feasting sites, where people would return yearly, generation after generation.
Cars Caron was an important site in the Iron Age, 2,700-2,000 years ago. Bogs were spiritually significant, often prompting offerings. Within Cors Caron, a small wooden figurine was discovered as a potential offering. A headless bog body, common in Iron Age Britain, was unearthed in 1811 and reburied at Ystrad Meurig Church.
In medieval times, Cors Caron was divided among Strata Florida Abbey’s farms: Penardd, Blaenaeron, and Mefenydd. The Abbey started to decline in the 1200s and the bog’s history becomes less certain, though it was probably owned by the crown.