ABSTRACT
Once upon a time there was a giant, a sad and lonely fellow whose only comfort was to sit at his large stone dining table feasting on his daily meal of raw meat and young saplings and watch the sun set over the sea to the west…
Once upon a time there was a great king, a legend in his own time, whose loyal knights convened at a round table and followed him on his ventures across lands to the west, leaving structures in the landscape where he had deigned to stop and rest, or fight a heroic battle, or play quoits…
Once upon a time there was a mighty chieftain, so honoured that upon his death a huge structure was erected in a prominent place by his one remaining son, in which his body and those of his sons were laid to rest…
Once upon a now there is a stone structure of the portal dolmen classification, built in the Neolithic…
These stories refer to Pentre Ifan, a megalith in Pembrokeshire, Wales (Figure 16.1). Would you, as an archaeologist, choose the last story, dismissing the others as flights of fancy, folklore, nonsense?
