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Books, Prehistory, Archaeologia Volume 49 1885 Section 3

Archaeologia Volume 49 1885 Section 3 is in Archaeologia Volume 49 1885.

3. Typical Specimens of Cornish Barrows. By William Copeland Borlase (age 31), M.P., F.S.A. Read Feb. 3, 1881

The coast-line of the extremity of Western Cornwall has been so often laid under contribution of late by the artist's pencil, that its general features are familar to many who have never paid the country a personal visit. The fantastic forms which the weather-worn granite assumes as it rears itself in bosses (or "karns" as they are locally termed ) between the deeply-cleft gullies down which the streams of red mine-water find their broken way, are the characteristics of that portion of the cliff which, lying between the promontories of the Land's End and Cape Cornwall, are turned most directly towards the setting sun. It is along this line of coast-some six or seven miles in extent-that the stone cairns which formed the burying-places of an early population are found in greater abundance than is the case in any other portion of the district. Along this same strip of sea-board are no less than three of those fortifications known as cliff castles, defended in each case by lines of ramparts crossing the necks of headlands from side to side, terminating at either end in the abrupt precipice of the cliff, and always intended to resist attack from the land side. Within these lines stone cairns are frequently found-a fact which seems to point to the conclusion that the latter are the more recent of the two; since, were it not so, the castle-builders would have availed themselves of the pile of stone already on the spot and ready to their hand. I may here mention that in a bank of stone contiguous to, and perhaps a portion of, one of these cliff castles-that at Kenidjack — a workman recently found and brought to me two remarkably fine bronze socket-celts. With them was a broken paalstab, a piece of bronze cast off from the mould, a quantity of well-smelted copper, and some roughly-smelted tin.

But not only in ancient times was every promontory on this coast crowned by a conical tomb, consisting of a basement of large slabs set on edge, containing and miners returning from their work at night have seen lights burning and rings of fairies dancing on and around it. Having one day climbed to the top of this heap to gain a better view of fishing boats at sea, my attention was attracted to the fact that in one spot, at the very summit, the pile was composed, not of the usual material broken under ground, but of the granite stones common to the surface of the land. It was clear therefore that they had been purposely thrown there by the hand of man. Fancying that they might be, as indeed I soon proved that they were, the upper portion of a large cairn which owed its preservation to the covering of mine stuff which centuries had accumulated round it, I caused a gang of miners to drive a trench from the outside of the whole mound towards the point where the surface-stones appeared on the top. By this method, after many days ' labour, the structure of an enormous tumulus was laid bare on the western side, with the following most interesting results: -At a distance of ten feet from the edge of the pile an outer wall was uncovered, formed of massive blocks of granite, some of them seven and eight feet long, set on edge contiguously, and supporting a second layer placed horizontally on their top. It took about one hundred and fifty of these blocks, as we afterwards found, to form the outer circle of the entire cairn. It formed at once the inclosing ring and the basement of the immense pile of stone which lay within. This pile measured in diameter sixty-seven feet north and south, and from seventy to eighty feet east and west, while the entire accumulation of débris denuded from it on all sides measured not less than one hundred and fifty feet across. The symmetry of the circle, when seen in ground plan as laid down by Mr. Lukis, is spoiled by a considerable bulge on the south-west side. Passing the outer ring and continuing the trench towards the centre, the workmen broke through a congeries of loose stones eighteen to twenty feet in breadth, and, after removing a sufficient number to gain a passage through them, reached a second wall, resting, like the former one, on the natural surface, and sur-rounded at its base by a stratum of ashes and charred wood. The diameter of this second circle was thirty feet north and south by thirty-seven feet east and west. Its construction was very different to that of the outer wall. In some places, though it had clearly been truncated, it was still twelve feet high, and was neatly constructed throughout in a beehive form, with layers of square or flat stones. The dome shape was so distinctly marked that, at a height of five feet from the base, it had gradually inclined inwards no less than two feet. Unlike the beehive huts, well known to antiquaries in the same district, and which are self-supporting, this dome depended for its stability on the pile of stones which it enclosed. At a height of four feet six inches from the ground, a layer of well-chosen square stones ran all round the The depth at the south-west end was three feet, but it descended by two steps until the floor at the other end was reached seven feet under the surface. Here it joined the transverse portion, which was eight feet long by two feet wide, was rudely rounded off at either end, and had been hollowed out like a cave under the hard soil. This part lies under the north-east side of the inner circles, and if it was a grave at all it is here that the body would have been interred. I have my misgivings however that it may be the work of miners at a later date. No traces of interment were found in it, but a quantity of black greasy mould, amongst which was a bead of soft micaceous stone one inch and a quarter in diameter, which differs from a spindle-whorl in being more globular in shape. In cleaning up the floor of this inner circle immediately around this pit the workmen brought to light no fewer than five little stone cists, of very neat construction, and all arranged on the south and south-west sides.

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The first of these was four feet from the south-west end of the pit. It was three feet long and about one foot wide, covered in by three stones-more like a drain than anything else. At the south-east end it was closed, but at the other end it curved round towards the mouth of the pit. The depth was about eighteen inches. At the south-west corner, close against the wall, stood a small and perfectly plain cylindrical little urn, mouth upwards. It was filled with dark-coloured earth and charred wood, on the top of which lay two minute portions of burnt bone. The height is five inches and three eighths, and its diameter four inches and three quarters.

In the same cist were three other fragments of another small vessel which had been provided with two knobs or cleats. Two feet to the south-east of this cist was a second; and the same distance to the north-east a third, which though it was perfect when discovered has since been destroyed. It was two feet long, one foot three inches wide, and covered by two stones. Within it lay another miniature urn on its side, closely hugging the south-east wall, and evidently placed purposely in that position. It is four inches and a half high and four inches wide at the mouth. The pottery is very coarse, black, and earthy, and, like the former one, was not made on the wheel. It is as good a representation in miniature of the one form of Cornish sepulchral urn ( i.e. the type with the bulge and tapering extremity ) as is the other little one in the other cist of those of the cylindrical type. It appeared as if these little cists had been placed in a rude circle, for two feet north-east of this cist was another, this time a double one, each of the compartments measuring two feet long by one foot wide.

On a portion of the upper part of the cairn falling away, a sixth and last cist was discovered at a height of five feet above the level of the ground. It measured one foot square, and contained several fragments of a thin well-baked vessel of the domestic type, such as is found in the hut villages of the neighbourhood, clearly distinguishable from the sepulchral pottery, and assignable to the Romano-British date. With the shards were some unburnt bones of animals, among which was the jawbone of a lamb.

On the western slope of a hill at Tregaseal, in the parish of St. Just, and about a mile and a half from the cairn just described, stands the tumulus to which I will next call attention [Tregeseal Chambered Cairn [Map]]. It is rather oval than round, measuring in length from north-west to south-east forty-one feet, and in breadth some ten feet less. Twelve stones of the outer ring were still in their place, and there were traces of an inner circle on the north-west side. The greater portion of the north side, and apparently the centre also, had been carted away for hedging, and an urn had been discovered in the process. Undeterred, however, by hearing this, I set to work in August, 1879, upon the portion that still remained, and was soon rewarded by discoveries of a particularly interesting nature. On the south-east side, and apparently communicating with the outer ring by a passage way which had lost its covering stones, was a fine stone chamber, the sides of which were formed by slabs of granite, four on one side and five on the other, terminated at the north-west end by a single block, and at the south-east end by a smaller stone, which had fallen inwards. It was eleven feet long and four feet high, varying in width from three to four feet, and was paved throughout. The roof was formed of two remarkably well-chosen slabs, which, however, only extended half the length of the chamber, the others having seemingly been removed. One of these slabs presented the peculiarity of a natural boss, rising to a height of five inches from its surface; and I have little doubt ( from other similar examples of stones having peculiar formations occurring in connection with rude stone monuments ) that this feature had led to its selection. The floor of this chamber, as at Ballowall, was strewn with ashes and the burnt bones of full-grown human subjects, amongst which was a quantity of broken pottery and a long sand-stone, perforated at one extremity and intended for a whetstone. At the north-west end of the chamber was a raised platform formed of two flat stones, both under and upon which burnt bones were found. A flint scraper and other broken flints occurred in the material of the barrow, which on the north side was composed of stone and on the south of earth. But the feature of greatest interest occurred when the workmen were clearing away the stones and earth immediately outside the north-west end of the chamber. Here a cist had been rudely constructed, about three feet in height, subsequently to the chamber itself, as was evident from the fact that advantage had been taken of the stones of the latter in forming the walls and roof of the former. The cist proved to be full of fine earth, which, as it came shaling down, displayed an urn-the largest of the sepulchral type yet found in Cornwall, if not in England, measuring twenty-one inches high, with a diameter of sixteen inches at the mouth, and eighteen inches at the bulge ( seven inches below the rim ), from which point it tapers away to a base only six inches in diameter. The shape of the vessel may fairly be said to be artistic: two handles, each five inches in breadth, spring from the sides, and the whole of the upper portion is ornamented with double indented lines arranged in bands, or in acute angles, or in diamond form. Similar bands are carried round the inside of the rim. The urn stood in an inverted position, the mouth resting on a granite rock in situ. It was about half full of calcined human bones. The bottom, which had been broken in by the shifting of the cover of the cist, showed on the inside a cross, standing out in relief, from a quarter to half an inch. It is chamfered or rather bevelled at the edges; the arms are of equal length, and, as they do not reach to the sides of the vessel, clearly could not have been intended to strengthen it. It has evidently been made with care and trouble, and is no mere conventional pattern for the sake of quartering the circle. I have seen in the British Museum another example from one of the Devonshire caves; and Canon Greenwell notices one or two other specimens from Wilts and Dorset.

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The last tumulus I propose to notice is that which crowns the summit of the last hill in England - Chapel Karn Brea [Map]. The estate on which it stands derives its name from a chapel which once stood on the top of this very cairn. The accompanying drawing, made by my ancestor Dr. Borlase, which has never yet been correctly engraved, represents the mound and chapel as they appeared one hundred and fifty years ago. In 1816 the stones of the little building were removed in order to make additions to a barn, and all that now remains is the rude pile used by the fishermen as a landmark and called the "tummal." Satisfied that such an accumulation of stones-for it is fifteen feet high and sixty-two feet in diameter — would never have been gathered together by the chapel-builders, I several years ago sunk a pit to the centre, which, however never reached the level of the natural soil. Not contented with so poor a trial, in the autumn of 1879 I caused a trench thirty feet wide to be driven towards the the south-east, at a distance of six feet six inches from the entrance of the chamber, and at a higher level, stood a fine cist or dolmen, covered by a single well-chosen slab, five feet square on the top and one foot six inches thick. The cist itself measured internally three feet by two feet six inches, and two feet in depth. There was nothing in it, and the floor was composed of the loose materials of the earlier mound on which it had been built. From the evidence of an old farm labourer who had known the place for years, I am inclined to believe that there was another similar cist removed from the west-south-west side. In the débris of the cairn above this some pieces of Romano-British pottery were found, and among them a small fragment of Samian ware. A buttress sunk to support the corner-stone of the chapel had reached to within a foot or two of the cover of the cist; but it was plain that the builders of the chapel had never disturbed either that or the chamber, and were therefore ignorant of their existence. Veneration for the spot on the part of the natives probably induced the Christian missionaries to adopt it for themselves, and the fact that an annual tour is made by country-people to a stone on the hill-side below points in the same direction. Reaching the level of the foundation of the chapel, mediæval pottery and glass occurred, as well as some of the very curious ridge-tiles of the edifice. Taken altogether, the evidence derivable from the exploration of this cairn-although the discoveries were next to none — was very instructive. It is clear from it that the period of the chambered mounds or giants ' graves-perfect specimens of which we possess at Pennance and Brane in the same district, and also in Scilly, preceded that of the cist or dolmen proper; and the occurrence of the Samian ware, and other objects at higher levels, afford us, like so many geological strata, evidences of human society in each successive age, even down to the ferret-bell which I found in a rabbit-hole at the top. I may add that this cairn, being on my own property, will be carefully preserved. Occupying as it does a position so important to mariners, I have restored it to its original height, leaving the chamber and cist exposed to view.

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In conclusion I should like to add one word as to the plans and drawings I have made use of in illustration of my subject. They were made by Mr. Lukis during his visit to Cornwall in the autumn of 1879. In the work of planning the rude stone monuments of Cornwall I accompanied him and rendered such assist-ance as I could. To give you an example of the value of the series of plans he then made, I may mention that they represent every rude stone monument known in the county, and there are no two of them alike. More than this several of the monuments, and those not the least in importance, have never been planned, and indeed have scarcely been known to exist before. On one of them-a singular dolmen in the Lizard district-we discovered cup-markings which, with one doubtful exception, had not occurred in Cornwall previously. Another monument a circle, in the parish of Blisland, on Hawks Tor-is next in size to Abury itself; it presents the remarkable features of a surrounding trench, a central pillar, and a cist close by, while the stones are of remarkable height, though, owing to many having fallen, they had hitherto escaped observation. The fact that the Society is publishing this most interesting series is a matter of sincere gratification to those who bore a part in a work, which they hope soon to see extended to other portions of the United Kingdom.