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An army of volunteer archaeologists has stunned the experts by unearthing evidence of an ancient conflict which took place in Wales hundreds of years before Egypt’s pyramids were built.

A six-year-old schoolboy was the first to spot what turned out to be a Neolithic arrow head, dating back to 3,600 BC, at an archaeological dig site in Caerau on the outskirts of Cardiff.

More than 250 volunteers from the CAER Heritage Project began digging at the site of an ancient Welsh hill fort in early July with the hope of finding artefacts dating back up to 2,000 years.

Among them more than 80 school children and teachers have collectively put in 2000 hours helping experts sift through the site, expecting to dig up Roman and Iron Age finds.

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But as the excavation of prehistoric ditches proceeded the expert team from Cardiff University was shocked as volunteers unearthed a plethora of early Neolithic finds.

Finds suggesting an ancient conflict range from flint tools and weapons, including arrowheads, awls and scrapers as well as polished stone axe fragments and pottery, dating to around 3,600 BC.

A dig last year revealed the fort was the site of a powerful Iron Age community pre-dating the arrival of the Romans. The latest discovery pushes back finds a further 4,000 years in time.

“Quite frankly, we were shocked. Nobody predicted this,” said dig co-director Dr Dave Wyatt, from Cardiff University.

“Our previous excavation yielded pottery and a mass of finds, including five large roundhouses, showing Iron Age occupation, and there’s evidence of Roman and medieval activity, but no one realised the site had been occupied as far back as the Neolithic - predating the construction of the Iron Age hill fort by several thousand years.”

He added: “What’s really great about this story is that we’ve made the Neolithic discoveries with the help of local people.

“A six-year-old local boy spotted the first major Neolithic find - a flint tool from the Neolithic ditch.

“It’s all down to the hard work of local volunteers, who have been uncovering arrowheads and pottery, while local school children and teachers have been excavating and sieving the spoil heaps to look for finds.

“This local involvement is very important to us and is in line with key objectives of the CAER Heritage project which is to put local people at the heart of archaeological research, and to develop educational opportunities in Caerau and Ely.”

Oliver Davis, co-director of the CAER project, explained: "The ditches appear to date to the early Neolithic, when communities first began to settle and farm the landscape.

“The location and number of Neolithic finds indicate that we have discovered a causewayed enclosure; a special place where small communities gathered together at certain important times of the year to celebrate, feast, exchange things and possibly find partners.

“Such sites are very rare in Wales with only five other known examples, mostly situated in the south. What’s fascinating is that a number of the flint arrowheads we have found have been broken as a result of impact - this suggests some form of conflict occurred at this meeting place over 5,000 years ago."