Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/439

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EARLY MAN some paving, and quantities of burnt ashes, and fragments of at least seven vessels of pottery. 1 Pottery was discovered in excavating at Trewortha. 9 Remains at Smallacombe in Linkinhorne 8 may on examination prove to be the ruins of a similar cluster. There was a good specimen at Bodinnar, 4 and there is a more ruinous one at Mulfra in Gulval. 8 One which Edmonds mentions at Bojuthno is now destroyed. 6 Dr. Borlase records the existence of a series of similar structures at Chygwidden in Sancreed, 7 within a protecting rampart, but now all traces of the huts have been removed, and nothing except a part of the rampart remains. Coins are said to have been found in clearing the ruins. There are a few instances of ' beehive ' huts in Cornwall, two 8 being still in fair preservation. These are circular buildings about 1 5 feet in diameter ; the walls are carried up straight for about 5 feet, above which each course is laid overlapping the one below until the roof meets in the centre. The one at Bosporthennis has an oblong square-cornered room opening out of it, the southern end wall of which appears to have had almost a gable end. There is a curious hut or chamber built in an enormous bank of earth and stones at Ding Dong in Madron. 9 The bank is faced with stone through which a doorway 3 ft. wide leads into a long chamber, similar to the underground caves previously described; from this another doorway 2 ft. 6 in. X 3 ft. 6 in. opens into a small square room 9 ft. on each side. This is roofed by four long blocks of granite placed on the walls, which are 4 ft. high, across the corners. Four similar stones are laid across the angles of the first course, and one large single stone covers the remaining space. Although somewhat different and apparently more modern than the beehive huts already mentioned, the ' Culver house ' at Bussow, in Towednack, 10 may serve as a fitting conclusion for this notice. It is circular, 18 ft. high, and the dome or roof is formed of eight layers of stone, each overlapping the one beneath it. The small square openings through the walls are supposed to indicate that it was built for use as a pigeon house, but the history of this curious little tower is unknown. THE EARLY IRON AGE In addition to the bronze mirror discovered in a grave at Trelan Bahow, St. Keverne, and the bronze collar discovered at Trenoweth, in the parish of Lelant, which are given in Mr. J. Romilly Allen's list of late Celtic objects, 11 Sir John Evans 1S recorded the discovery of a bronze brooch at Redmore, near St. Austell, which probably belongs to the Early Iron Age. A bronze fibula inlaid with coral (?), found in tin stream- works at Treloy in St. Columb Major 1S (now in the Museum at Truro), and a brass jewelled collar found with a bowl of block tin in tin stream-works in St. Stephen in Brannell, 1 * (now in the Museum at Truro), present certain features which resemble late Celtic ornaments from Yorkshire, and there is no reason to doubt that they belong to the same period. I Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 286. * Journ. Roy. last. Corntv. xi, 290. 3 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. iii (1868), 10. 4 Edmonds op. cit. 46 ; Tram. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 247 ; Bateman, op. cit. 3. 5 Bateman, op. cit. 15. 6 Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antlq. Soc. i, 249. ' Bateman, op. cit. 1 6. 8 Bosporthennis in Zennor, Lukis, op. cit. 19, fig. xxxix ; J. Romilly Allen, Arch. Camb. ix; Bateman, op. cit. 1 6. Fernacre near Brownwilly, Bateman, op. cit. 8 and sketch. 9 Bateman, op. cit. 7. 10 Bateman, op. cit. 8. II Arch. Camb. (Ser. 5), vol. xiii, 331. u Evans, Bronze Imp. 400. 13 Journ. Roy. Inst. Corntv. iv, 220. " Ibid, iii (1869), xi. 371