Key Dates

Bronze Age activity has been recorded at various sites on desiccated raised peat beds, such as at Chapel Tump and Goldcliff. More recently, at Caldicot Castle there is detailed evidence of palaeochannels, pile structures, a boat strake (a strip of planking in a wooden boat) and a considerable amount of cultural material.

Iron Age evidence has been discovered in the intertidal zone at Goldcliff, with rectangular timber buildings, trackways and fishtraps on a shelf of fen peat. Also outside, but near the area, at Barland's Farm, Wilcrick, Roman stone and timber structures have been found, along with the remains of a late 3rd Century Romano-British boat, emphasizing the remarkable state of preservation of archaeological material in and around the Levels.

Middle Ages are represented by a large number of Anglo-Norman sites including castles, moated sites, churches, mills, manor houses and court houses. There is evidence of continuity in the forms of land use between the medieval and post-medieval periods.The remains of a 13th-century boat, used for trading along and across the Severn Estuary, and perhaps with Ireland, were found buried in the mud of the estuary close to Magor Pill. The boat was found to have been carrying iron ore from Glamorgan. It is the largest wreck find of its period in Welsh waters and probably the largest found so far in the British Isles.

The present landscape represents the latest archaeological period and provides the diverse ecological niches on which the nature conservation interests depend.