Lost and found city: the rediscovery of a lost city in Wales reminds us that self-reliance and perseverance are keys to success.

It's not every day that evidence of the existence of a "lost city" falls in one's lap. But that is exactly what seems to have happened to one man in Wales. Stuart Wilson, a toll collector who trained as an archeologist while an undergraduate at York University, was working at the Monmouth Archaeological Society in 2002 when he met a local landowner who said he had been finding large amounts of what looked like medieval pottery in molehills on his land.

The man invited Stuart and another archaeologist, Julia Wilson, to his land to look at the site firsthand. Julia, no relation to Stuart, had a few years earlier published a paper arguing that the lost medieval city of Trellech might very well be near the area where the pottery was now being found. If the report of medieval pottery in the region proved accurate, it would lend crucial support to Julia Wilson's theory.

Both Stuart and Julia were impressed by what they found at the site. Previously, there had been little evidence supporting Julia's theory. Intrigued by the pottery, though, the pair began a preliminary investigation. "We began to probe for remains and dig a test trench," Stuart told THE NEW AMERICAN. "The test trench found two cut stones laid next to each other and it was decided that we should come back a few weeks later and open out a larger trench to better understand what we had found." Shortly after, Julia left the project, but here, nevertheless, was compelling evidence that the area had been occupied in medieval times.

After all this time, could this be the site of the lost city of Wales? This first survey "turned into a lifetime of discovery," Stuart Wilson told Archaeology magazine. It's a discovery that proves the axiom that, when left unencumbered by regulation, human reason armed with knowledge, skill, and determination is capable of realizing amazing and often unexpected discoveries.

Ancient History

The area around the modern-day town of Trellech has been inhabited for millennia. Just outside the modern town stand examples of the impressive megaliths for which Stone Age Britain is known. Famous in occult circles for their mystical aura, legend has it that these megaliths, known as Harold's Stones, were erected by Saxon King Harold to celebrate a military victory in 1063. But they are, in fact, many centuries older.

Despite the obvious presence of human activity in the area from antiquity, the region in which Trellech is located did not begin to increase in importance until after 1000 A.D. The area received a substantial boost following the arrival of the Norman conquerors in England in 1066. Norman occupation was both military and civilian in character. On the military side, the Normans were great castle builders and, according to historian John Davies--a leading authority on the history of Wales--by 1086 A.D., Gwent, the region around Trellech, was dominated by Norman military might. By then, Davies noted in his A History of Wales, the Normans "had castles at Chepstow, Monmouth and Carleon, and the Welsh kingdom of Gwent had been extinguished after an existence of almost seven hundred years."

With castles came urban settlement, the second means by which the Normans usually consolidated their control over a region. Davies points out that the Normans pursued a vigorous strategy of urban settlement in Wales. "Between 1070 and 1300," he writes, "about eighty towns were established in Wales, some twenty of which had come into existence before 1135." Among these was Trellech. This town benefited from the influx of settlers, becoming a center of manufacturing and trade. In fact, at its height, Trellech became an important source of iron for the Norman de Clares who, by virtue of their service during the Norman invasion, were made lords over the region.

Trellech's size was substantial when compared with other nearby cities. According to The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, Trellech "possibly had 378 burgages in 1288," a burgage being a plot of land on which a house was located that could be as much as half an acre in size. This, at the time, made Trellech one of the largest cities in Wales. By comparison, Cardiff, a city of over 300,000 today, had 421 burgages in 1300. Even this may underestimate the true size of Trellech at its height. These statistics only count those burgages that were taxed, but there would have been other properties in Trellech as well, including church property. "In all there would have been at least 500 buildings, probably supporting 10,000 people, which would make it approximately the size of London" at the time, Wilson told THE NEW AMERICAN.

Trellech's prosperity was not to last, however. In the 1290s, Wilson recounts, the town was burned down as a punishment when its people were accused of stealing deer from a forest nearby. Further misfortune came in 1314 A.D., when the de Clares fell in battle at Bannockburn in Scotland against Robert the Bruce and, according to the Cambridge History, "Trellech ... was all but abandoned." Diminished, the town persisted but was decimated by the Black Plague later in the same century, further reducing the town's population, and it was in no condition to face the worsening weather and crop failures brought on by the onset of the Little Ice Age. Because of the worsening weather, Wilson said, "the people who were not dead moved for a better place elsewhere," and the medieval town of Trellech faded from history, lost and nearly forgotten.

Trellech Rediscovered

After his initial survey, Wilson was increasingly convinced that he had found an important archaeological site. Then, as luck would have it, part of a property encompassing the area where it looked like important parts of Trellech might be buried came up for sale. It was an opportunity Wilson couldn't pass up. With his parents' help, he scraped together enough money to buy the property. "My parents agreed to help me buy it," Wilson told the Mail on Sunday, a publication of London's Daily Mail. "Other people might want to buy an expensive sports car but I am fascinated by archaeology."

Instead of the sports car, Wilson relished the opportunity to have complete control over the dig. "I'd always wanted a piece of ground where I had full control as, normally, when you dig somewhere, you are forever reinstating the topsoil when you take a break. When you return, you have to dig it all up again," Wilson told the British paper the Telegraph. Still, it seems like it might have been a risky investment, but Wilson felt sure the site would be important. "The farmers all stated that the field could not be ploughed and when attempts were made in WWII stonework already cut and worked appeared," Wilson recalled. Clearly something had to be under the ground in the area. Still, it could have proved to be nothing more than a rocky outcrop. "In any case as my mum said if there is nothing there then it is still a good place to have a picnic," Wilson said.

Purchasing the property allowed Wilson to begin more ambitious excavations, and his efforts have been rewarded with spectacular finds. "Our excavations have already proven even more successful than I originally could have dreamt," Wilson enthusiastically told THE NEW AMERICAN. "The size and quality of the buildings is amazing combined with their preservation and the number of finds." Wilson described those finds to us in detail:

   At the archaeological dig we have
   now uncovered several stone buildings,
   the largest of which seems to
   be a manor house. Built in the late
   1200s this building has a double entrance
   at the centre of the front to
   which porches were added later. In
   the larger of the two there is a large
   flagstone and in the other the threshold
   stone is still in place. The main
   part of the manor house is made up of
   a long house that runs approximately
   15 metres north to south and 7 metres
   deep. To this was added a north wing
   that runs back a further 10 metres and
   is around 5 metres wide.

Wilson has also found a round tower nearly six metres across, two courtyards, and a particularly well-preserved well. "The well within the courtyard is stone lined and is at least 5.2 metres deep," said Wilson. "Below 3 metres it is rock cut and at least one incision has been made into the side to encourage flow of water into the well."

Wilson and his team, which has grown to include local volunteers and students, have also uncovered evidence of the town's industrial heritage. "To the south of the courtyard ... evidence suggests that the area may well have been an industrial site before the manor house was built, with the discovery of the remains of an iron furnace below one of the walls"

In addition to the architectural finds, Wilson has also found a number of important artifacts. His finds, which have caused enough of a sensation to be shown on the BBC, include a pot "that is 90% complete and which is over 600 years" old, plus "numerous pots including cooking pots and glazed vessels ... along with glasswork, numerous stone roof tiles, glazed ridge tiles and of course large amounts of iron slag."

Perseverance

None of this would have been found had Wilson not ignored conventional wisdom. In a culture permeated with the cult of professionalism, there can be a propensity for undue skepticism in all fields of study regarding claims, findings, and discoveries made by people perceived to be non-specialists.

Naturally, therefore, Wilson's discovery of the lost city was met with a certain amount of skepticism. "Many archaeologists were at first skeptical especially as the nearby University was saying that we were wrong," Wilson recounted. "However, most have now started supporting us, especially when some of them were invited down" to the site to see for themselves and couldn't "explain away the finds and structures." But University of Wales, Newport, "continues to claim that the city is mainly inside the [modem] village despite mounting evidence" to the contrary. Ever generous, Wilson points out that there is a lot at stake for Dr. Ray Howell, the University researcher. "He has 20 years of reputation built up on this so I can understand why it is difficult for him to let go," Wilson said.

In the meantime, Wilson plans to continue his work, work that has already played a significant role in bringing the history of the lost city of Wales into sharper focus. Like Schliemann, who more than a century ago continued to look for Troy when the experts said that lost city too only existed in fable, perseverance and self-reliance paid off for Wilson, leading him to make an astounding discovery. His work at Trellech is a reminder that all people, when left free to employ their God-given talents, have the ability to make amazing and unexpected discoveries.