EARLY MAN rubbish, Mr. Blight found pottery (fragments of seventeen different vessels), charcoal, bones of animals, bits of flint and pieces of iron, the largest of these being part of an iron implement which had apparently one cutting edge and was long-bladed. It was made with some skill and is described by Mr. Blight as ' similar to the mediaeval glaive.' This cave also yielded a spindle whorl, a granite mortar, and some stones evidently used for grinding. In 1863, Mr. W. C. Borlase completed the excavation of the cave at Chapel Euny, which had been partly cleared by a miner some twenty years before. He found in addition to a paved and drained floor, some coarse pottery both black and red, a small piece of ' beautiful red pottery, possibly Samian ware,' an iron crook, an iron spear-head 2J in. long, and numerous whetstones, mullers, ashes, bones of animals, a small circular stone amulet, I in. in diameter, with a hole through the centre and a considerable quantity of partly melted tin. 1 The object for which these structures were made is quite conjectural. The names do not help to any solution. Those at Boscaswell, 2 Bodinnar, 8 and Trew * are each known as the ' Giant's Holt,' but most of the others are simply called the ' Fogou ' or ' Vau,' which, with its other form of ' Hugo,' is the Cornish word for a cave. Hal, writing of Trewoofe (Trove), says that ' in the wars between Charles I and his Parliament, divers of the royal party, pursued in the west by the Parliament troops under Sir Thomas Fairfax, were privately conveyed into this vault .... where Mr. Leveale fed and secured them till they found opportunity to make their escapes." It is possible that some such purpose as this was the original cause of their existence, for the caves at Chysauster, 6 Bodinnar, 7 Chapel Euny, 8 and Roughtor ' are in the immediate vicinity of hut-circles or dwellings, and at Altarnun 10 and Halligey " are traces of fortifications. This last was according to Hal also the case at Trewoofe. 18 The remains of the early dwellings in the county are of two marked varieties. The rudest and apparently earliest are now to be noticed as low circular banks of earth and stone, generally containing some large flat stones still standing on edge ; the enclosed area is roughly level or slightly sunk. They are usually found grouped together in large numbers. In Blisland such groups are to be seen at Carwen, 13 on Kerrowe Down, 14 and on the west side of Challowater. 15 Sir John Maclean speaks of them as existing at Garrah in St. Breward ' by scores ' ; 16 there are numerous examples in Altarnun 17 on Rowtor, on Scaddick hill, at Came Down, and Hendra. Mr. T. C. Peter 18 found traces of more than 100 on Cam Brea in Illogan ; there are several inside the entrenchment of Castle Pencair on Tregoning Hill, in Breage ; and a group of five at Colvadnack in Wendron. 19 Very few isolated instances 1 See p. 368 supra. I Journ. Roy. Init. Corntv. (1864), No. ii, J. 3 Borlase, Antiq. 293. ' Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1888), 360. 6 Gilbert, Paroch. Hist, 143. ' Edmonds, op. cit. 51. 7 Borlase, Antiq. 293. 8 Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1862-5), 14. 9 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1885), 252. 10 Ibid. (1888), 342. " Ibid, viii, part iii (1885), 243. Arch. xl. II Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Sac. i, 249. 13 Maclean, op. cit. i, 23 and plan. " Ibid. 24. " Ibid. 24. ' Ibid, i, 351. 17 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. ix, pt. iii (1888), 349. festiges, 19 and plan. 18 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. xiii, pt. i (1895), 93. 19 Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1887-8), 349. I 369 47
