IX—Excavations at Chun Castle, in Penwith, Cornwall

E. Thurlow Leeds

doi:10.1017/S026134090001328X

IX—Excavations at Chun Castle, in Penwith, Cornwall

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011

E. Thurlow Leeds

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Chun, Ch'un, Chyoon, or Chywoon, as it is variously spelt, is the most remarkable of all the Cornish hill-castles. It is tempting to derive the name from the castle itself (Chy-oon, house on the moor), and, if that is legitimate, in Borlase's day, when the inner walls still stood 15 ft. high and more, the name was very apt. The ‘oon’ portion of the name is still present in the adjacent Woon Gumpus Common. Like Trencrom in Lelant, however, the castle probably took its name from the farm on which it stands.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 76 , 1927 , pp. 205 - 240

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S026134090001328X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1927

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^{page 205 note 1} Surely a tautology which should be removed from the Ordnance maps.

^{page 205 note 2} p. 347. pl. XXIX.

^{page 205 note 3} Archaeologia, xxii, 301–3Google Scholar and pl. xxix; Gent. Mag., 1864, p. 441 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 205 note 4} Arch. Cambr., 3rd ser., xi, 187.Google Scholar

^{page 205 note 5} V.C.H. Cornwall, i, 461Google Scholar. Traces of other excavations of unknown date are still visible in the southern half.

^{page 206 note 1} p. 203.

^{page 207 note 1} The datum level selected, from which all ascertained levels were reckoned, is the approximate level of the entrance, that is to say at 4 ft. 6 in. below the small horizontal platform which marks the inner face of the northern post of the inner gateway.

All measurements were referred to a line pegged out from a point midway between the inner faces of the posts of the inner gateway and making an angle of 7° 22′ to the north of the line to Ding Dong mine-stack from this point, that is on a line with geographic bearing, North, 71° 58′ East. The axial line of the castle is about five degrees more southerly, i.e. approximately North 77° East.

^{page 212 note 1} Rab is the name given to a yellow marly layer which underlies the humus.

^{page 215 note 1} Arch. Cambr., 3rd S., xi, 192.Google Scholar

^{page 215 note 2} Britton, and Brayley, , Beauties of England, ii, 500.Google Scholar

^{page 220 note 1} The letters on these two figures refer to (a) the furnace; (b) round house (section 14); (c) and (d) north and south houses (section 18).

^{page 222 note 1} A vase of this class from Sennen, near Land's End, figured by W. C. Borlase, Naenia Cornubiae, p. 230, is now in Truro Museum.

^{page 222 note 2} The more accurate designation of this site is Carn Uny.

^{page 224 note 1} W. Borlase Antiquities of Cornwall, 281, pl. xxiv. See Crawford, O. G. S., ‘Prehistoric Trade between England and France’ in L'Anthropologie, xxvi (1913), 641 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 224 note 2} Manuel, ii, 573.

^{page 225 note 1} Jullian, C.,Histoire de la Gaule, i, 199.Google Scholar

^{page 225 note 2} Ibid., i, 215.

^{page 225 note 3} Ibid., i, 213.

^{page 225 note 4} Strabo, iv, 190.

^{page 225 note 5} A. Schulten and P. Bosch, Fontes Historiae Hispanicae, i, 5–9.

^{page 226 note 1} A. Schulten and P. Bosch, Fontes Historiae Hispanicae, 11.

^{page 226 note 2} Ibid., 86–7.

^{page 226 note 3} Cf. Strabo, xvii, 802. The Phoenicians, to conceal their routes, sunk all strange vessels encountered round Sardinia and the Columns of Hercules.

^{page 226 note 4} Contrast with Déchelette, Manuel, ii, 570, Schulten, op. cit., 87 and 93.

^{page 226 note 5} T. Rice Holmes, Ancient Britain, 507.

^{page 226 note 6} Cf. the testimony of Ephorus (Strabo, iv, 4–6) that the Celts were philohellenic.

^{page 226 note 7} Revue Archéologique, 1912, i, 13 and pl. E.

^{page 227 note 1} Géographic de la Gaule, i, 289; T. Rice-Holmes, Ancient Britain, 512; see also, T. Taylor, The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall, 27.

^{page 227 note 2} In this passage I refer only to the latter part of the Bronze Age after 1000 B. C.; and Iberian is used in its wide geographical sense without reference to its specialized application to a particular part of the inhabitants of the peninsula.

^{page 227 note 3} Guide to Early Iron Age Antiquities (2nd edit.), 148, fig. 173; Proc. Soc. Ant., xxi, 374.

^{page 227 note 4} I am not concerned with possible arrivals of Celts before the Iron Age.

^{page 227 note 6} Aveneau de la Grancière, Les Ferriers, ou Amas anciens de scones de fer dans le Morbihan Extrait de la Revue Morbihannaise, mai, 1913), p. 3.

^{page 228 note 1} Borlase, W. C., Tin Mining in Spain(1897)Google Scholar.

^{page 228 note 2} Sir William Boyd-Dawkins tells me that he believes that the tin ore worked by the ancient Cornish was found in the form of vertical ridges which were left by decomposition of the granite on either side at points where the tin-lodes came to the surface, but that some tin-washing in rivers was also practised is vouched for both by Diodorus (v, 153) and by the expression ποταμόρρυτον κασσίτερον κἐ τῆς Κελτικῆς (Anonymi vulgo Scymni Chii, K. Müller's edit., i, 201, 1. 165).

^{page 228 note 3} Dr. Rice Holmes (Ancient Britain, 495–6) apparently fails to see that the Massiliotes for whom Pytheas acted desired a route to the tin-lands free from Carthaginian interference.

^{page 228 note 4} Boletin de la Real Sociedad Geogrdfica de Madrid, xlvi, 253.

^{page 228 note 5} E. Cartailhac, Les Âges préhistoriques dans l'Espagne et dans le Portugal, 273–4, 282–3.

^{page 228 note 6} Ibid., fig. 408. Some of these houses had a stone in the centre, on which a central pillar was supported. The presence of wooden supports was suspected at Croftoe (J.R.I. Cornwall, xxi, 171), and possibly even occurred at Chun itself (V.C.H. Cornwall, i, 461).

^{page 229 note 1} The latter as already indicated by Sir Hercules Read (Proc. Soc. Ant., xxi, 372–4). ^{page 229 note 2}. Collection of Señor Don Castro Sanpedro.

^{page 229 note 3} Museu Martins Sarmento, Guimarães.

^{page 230 note 1} Portugalia, ii, 15 ff., fig. 9.

^{page 230 note 2} O Archeólogo Portugués, xxiv, pl. xxix, 24.

^{page 230 note 3} Déchelette, Manuel, ii, 685, fig. 262.

^{page 230 note 4} This fragment forms part of the splendid series of gold torques of Celtic manufacture found in north-west Spain, which I was privileged to see in the collection of Señor Don Ricardo Blanco y Cicerón, at Santiago de Compostella. Many of the complete specimens are already well known (Boletin de la Comision de Monumentos historicos de Orense, 1906–7), but this important fragment has not received the notice it deserves. The illustration is based on a sketch made by the writer by kind permission of the owner in 192 E.

^{page 230 note 5} Manuel, ii, fig. 667, after P. du Chatellier, La poterie préhistorique et gauloise en Armorique, pl. 17.

^{page 232 note 1} Blight, J. T., Account of the Exploration of Subterranean Chambers at Treveneague, in the Parish of St. Hilary, Cornwall (Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1867).Google Scholar

^{page 232 note 2} Bushe-Fox, J. P., Excavations at Hengistbury, Hants, p. 59Google Scholar, pl. xiv, 10 (from a low level at site 25). The motive in its simplest (or final) form occurs on a fragment of a cup or bowl found in a pit-dwelling on Cleeve Hill (Brewer Coll., Cheltenham Museum), knowledge of which I owe to the Curator, Mr. G. Herdman.

^{page 232 note 3} For the facilities accorded to me for study on that occasion I desire to record my gratitude to the authorities of that museum.

^{page 232 note 4} I am indebted to Messrs. Bulleid and St. George Gray for permission to illustrate this sherd.

^{page 232 note 5} Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornwall, xvi. 72 ff., pl. 5, fig. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 232 note 6} Paris, P., L'art de l'Espagne primitive, ii, figs. 63, 64, 67, 71–3.Google Scholar

^{page 233 note 1} Déchelette, , Manuel, ii, fig. 666.Google Scholar

^{page 233 note 2} Ibid., fig. 668.

^{page 234 note 1} Archaeologia, lxiv, 340, fig. 1, no. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 234 note 2} British Museum Guide to the Roman Antiquities of Great Britain (1922), fig. 128.Google Scholar

^{page 234 note 3} Portugalia, ii, 1 ff., pls. 1 and 11.Google Scholar

^{page 234 note 4} Bulleid, A. and Gray, H. St. G., Lake Village, ii, pl. LXXI, P 26, and pl. LXXXII, P 216.Google Scholar

^{page 234 note 5} Journ. R. Soc. Ant. Ireland, lv, 15 ff., especially figs. 9, 20, 28, 43, and 52.Google Scholar

^{page 234 note 6} Bushe-Fox, J. P., op. cit., 21.Google Scholar

^{page 235 note 1} Boletin de la Real Sociedad Geogrdfica de Madrid, xlvi (1904), 255Google Scholar, as observed by Sr. Gomez-Moreno in the castros of the provinces of Avila, Salamanca, and Leon. The same holds good for Portugal. Gomez-Moreno adds, ‘quizá ella (i.e. metalurgia) fué un principal móvil de colonizatión.’

^{page 235 note 2} The tradition that the Milesians came to Ireland from Spain may also contain a larger element af truth than Professor Macalister (Ireland in Pre-Celtic Times, 265) suspects.

^{page 235 note 3} Apart from the discoveries at Chun and in the numerous hut-clusters and ‘fogous’ of Penwith, the close association of isolated finds of late Celtic objects in Cornwall with tin-workings is clearly shown by their distribution, as recorded in the Victoria County History of Cornwall, i, 371 and 373. In addition to the bronze mirror from Trelan Bahow in St. Keverne, the bronze collar from Trenoweth in Lelant, and coins from Cam Brea and Camborne, all well-known tin areas, a fibula inlaid with coral (?) was found in tin stream-works at Treloy in St. Columb Major, and a bronze collar along with a bowl of block tin in stream-works in St. Stephen in Brannell. To these must be added the La Tène I fibula from Redmore near St. Austell (in Sir John Evans's prehistoric collections recently presented to the Ashmolean Museum by Sir Arthur Evans) to which is attached the following interesting note:

‘Found at Redmore, St. Austell, in Cornwall under 6 ft. of peat and 20 in. of river gravel. Beneath the sand lay another deposit of peat, 2½ ft. in thickness, which had been partially cut as fuel. Mixed with the cut blocks of this second peat deposit were the remains of a smelting hearth and pieces of tin-slag.’

^{page 236 note 1} Cf. O. G. S. Crawford, The Observer, October 4th, 1925.

^{page 236 note 2} Since published in Trans. Bristol and Gloucs. Arch. Soc., xlvii, 104 ff.

^{page 237 note 1} Mr. G. Penrose, Curator of the Truro Museum, kindly allowed me to examine the collection of ron Age sherds in his custody. Among them were several affixed to a board and labelled Chapel Jny. The incised pottery is unquestionably Celtic. In addition, there was one sherd of the red ware ound at Chun. As there was nothing else which would in any way answer the description, I am inlined to believe that this fragment of red ware is that described by Borlase (Proc. Soc. Ant, 2nd S., iv, 67) as possibly Samian. In support of this belief I may add that in all the collections of sherds from such sites as those enumerated above I have never seen a single fragment which could be recognized is unmistakably Roman.

^{page 237 note 2} T. Rice Holmes, op. cit., 251. The camps at intervals along the south shore of the Bristol channel point to a sea-route up channel. The iron-stone at Hunsbury was probably of too low grade for smelting at that period.

^{page 238 note 1} The ultimate position is similar in Spain and Portugal. The following passage from M. Joulin's account of the Iron Age in southern Gaul and Iberia is wellnigh applicable to Britain: ‘Les débris remains font entièrement défaut à Cabrera de Mataro, à Puig-Castelar et dans certaines Citanias du Minho. C'est une nouvelle preuve que l'un des premiers effets de la conquête a été l'abandon des agglomérations situées sur des lieux élevés à la création, dans les plaines voisines, de nouveaux centres habités, tel que Iluro près de Cabrera, Betulo près de Puig-de-Castelar, dont tous les vestiges sont remains’ (Rev. Arch. (1911), i, 34).

^{page 238 note 2} Another cake was found at Harlyn Bay and is now at Padstow.

^{page 239 note 1} Geological Survey Memoir, ‘Land's End District’. Antimony is recorded as occurring in the rowns Mine, Botallack, but not elsewhere.

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