Itinerant archaeology

Last week I was lucky enough to have a few friends from Cambridge staying with me down in Cornwall. Whilst we did a lot of the more touristy stuff in the area (I can fully endorse the Seal Sanctuary and the Eden Project), I also tried to show them a sliver of Cornish archaeology.

Since Cornwall was (largely) untouched by the Roman invasion, and remains somewhat sparsely populated today, a lot of prehistoric archaeology is still in very good condition. My absolute favourite site in Cornwall is Carn Euny [1] – an Iron Age village that lies some 2 miles off the A30 near Land’s End, at the end of a windy one-track lane.

Although the initial occupation of the site dates to the Bronze Age, the two main building phases date to the (Middle and Late) Iron Age, and occupation continued well into the “Roman” period. As you can see from my photo above, the site is remarkably well preserved and it’s easy to get an idea of what it would have looked like in the Iron Age.

The site also contains a curiosity found only in Cornwall. Dating to the Middle Iron Age is a circular stone chamber, accessed through an underground passage, around 20m long. This is known as a ‘fogou”, and less that 15 have been found in Cornwall, although similar examples (known as souterrains) have been found in Scotland and France. The purpose of the Cornish fogous is unknown, although uses such as hiding places or food stores have been postulated.

The fogou passage [2]

Another nearby site is the prehistoric village of Chysauster, which also contains an example of the Cornish fogou, although this has been blocked off due to safety reasons. The interesting difference between Chysauster and Carn Euny is that the former is actively managed by English Heritage, and adheres to opening hours and an entrance fee. For my friends this meant the site was closed and inaccessible by the time we arrived in the late afternoon, and it’s strange that two near-identical sites are managed so differently.

Whether this is due to Chysauster being slightly easier to drive to, I’m not sure, and it’s worth pointing out that English Heritage also oversees Carn Euny, and there are a few signs dotted around to explain the site (although in my opinion they could include more information). Personally I much prefer the hands-off approach at Carn Euny but obviously this is not always possible.

Another fun past time I like to subject my friends to is “Spot-the-hillfort” – a game to be played when travelling throughout Britain. One of my favourites to point out is Brent Knoll hillfort in Somerset, which dominates the landscape adjacent to junction 22 of the M5. In Prehistory the Somerset levels would have been flooded, so the site itself would have been an island at times, which is also fun to think about.

So wherever you next are in Britain, or the next time you journey down the M5, be sure to keep an eye out for some archaeology!

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[1] An interesting side note is that the Cornish word ‘carn’ is a place-name element that translates as ‘heap of stones’, and is found in other places names such as the hillfort of Carn Brea, ‘brea’ meaning hill. So the literal meaning of Carn Brea is ‘heap of stones on a hill’ = a hillfort! Magic. The word ‘dinas’ is also a Cornish word for hillfort, such as Treryn Dinas, a promontory fort.

[2] Images my own.