Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T10:31:36.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Archaeology and Environment of a Bronze Age Cairn and Prehistoric and Romano-British Field System at Chysauster, Gulval, near Penzance, Cornwall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

George Smith
Affiliation:
Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, Craig Beuno, Garth Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2RT

Abstract

The project involved the survey and selective excavation of an area of field system adjoining the Romano-British ‘courtyard house’ settlement of Chysauster, near Penzance, Cornwall, supported by soil and pollen studies and by the extensive landscape surveys. The excavation had two main elements: study of the rectilinear field system and excavation of a Bronze Age funerary cairn incorporated in one of the field boundaries. The earliest field system, probably with origins in the 2nd millennium BC, was largely modified by a more irregular and strongly lynchetted field pattern, probably associated with more intensive Iron Age and Romano-British agriculture. There was also some medieval or post-medieval reuse and modification. The cairn pre-dated a boundary bank of one of the early fields and was the focus for a number of cremation burials. Six of these were accompanied by pots which, together with their radiocarbon dates, provide a significant group of the middle phase of the Trevisker variant of the British Food Urn ceramic tradition. Excavation of field boundaries showed evidence of long periods of modification and lynchet accumulation but lacked good artefactual or radiocarbon dating evidence. Soil and pollen analysis produced significant new evidence for this region, showing the former existence of a brown soil under open oak/hazel woodland, with some cereal cultivation taking place, prior to the construction of the Bronze Age cairn. Later cultivation techniques led to deterioration in soil status and to soil erosion. Some field boundaries may have been constructed at this time to conserve soil or as dumps for clearance stone. The changes, through deforestation, cultivation, and erosion influenced the plant communities in the nearby valley where pollen analysis of a peat section suggested three phases of human activity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Annable, R. 1987. The Later Prehistory of Northern England. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 160.Google Scholar
ApSimon, A.M. 1972. Biconical urns outside Wessex. In Lynch, F. & Burgess, C. (eds), Prehistoric Man in Wales and the West, Essays in Honour of Lily E Chitty, 141–60. Bath: Adams & Dart.Google Scholar
ApSimon, A.M. & Greenfield, E. 1972. The excavation of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements at Trevisker, St. Eval, Cornwall. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 38, 302–81.Google Scholar
Avery, B.W. & Bascomb, C.L. 1974. Soil Survey Laboratory Methods. Harpenden: Soil Survey Technical Monograph 6.Google Scholar
Avery, B.W. 1980. Soil Classification for England and Wales, Harpenden: Soil Survey Monograph 14.Google Scholar
Avery, B.W. 1990. Soils of the British Isles. Wallingford: C.A.B. International.Google Scholar
Balaam, N. D., Smith, K. & Wainwright, G.J. 1982. The Shaugh Moor project: fourth report — environment, context and conclusion. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 48, 203–78.Google Scholar
Barnatt, J. 1982. Prehistoric Cornwall, the Ceremonial Monuments. Northampton: Turnstone Press.Google Scholar
Barnatt, J. 1987. Bronze Age settlement on the East Moors of the Peak District of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 53, 393418.Google Scholar
Beck, C. & Shennan, S. 1991. Amber in Prehistoric Britain. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph 8.Google Scholar
Boiffin, J. & Bresson, L.M. 1987. Dynamique de formation des croutes superficielles: apport de l'analyse microscopique. In Federoff, N. Bresson, L.M. & Courty, M.A. (eds), Soil Micromorphology, 393–9. Plaisir, France: Association Française pour l'Etude de Sol.Google Scholar
Borlase, W.C. 1872. Naenia Cornubiae. London & Truro: Longmans.Google Scholar
Borlase, W.C. 1873. Vestiges of early habitation in Cornwall. Archaeological Journal 30, 325–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, H.C. 1961. Ancient Fields. London: British Association for the Advancement of Science.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1978. Prehistoric field systems in Britain and Northern Europe. World Archaeology 9, 265–80.Google Scholar
Briard, J. & Monnier, J.L. 1976. Tumulus Amoricains de l'Age du Bronze et couverture loessique Weichselienne. Bulletin de la Société Minéralogique Bretagne, C., VIII, 1/2, 7588.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsay, C. 1994. Oxcal (v2.0): a radiocarbon calibration and analysis program. Oxford: Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit.Google Scholar
Bullock, P., Federoff, N., Jongerius, A., Stoops, G. & Tursina, T. 1985. Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description. Wolverhampton: Waine Research Publications.Google Scholar
Burgess, C.B. 1980. Excavations at Houseledge, Black Law, Northumberland, 1979. Northern Archaeology 1, 512.Google Scholar
Burl, A. 1972. Stone circles and ring cairns. Scottish Archaeological Forum 4, 3147.Google Scholar
Catt, J.A. & Staines, S.J. 1984. Loess in Cornwall. Proceedings of the Usher Society 5, 368–75.Google Scholar
Christie, P.M. 1960. Craig-a-mennis: a Bronze Age barrow at Liskey, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 26, 7697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christie, P.M. 1978. The excavation of an Iron Age souterrain and settlement at Cam Euny, Sancreed, Cornwall. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 44, 309434.Google Scholar
Christie, P.M. 1985. Barrows on the North Cornish Coast: wartime excavations by C.K. Croft Andrew 1939–44. Cornish Archaeology 24, 23121.Google Scholar
Christie, P.M. 1988. A barrow cemetery on Davidstow Moor, Cornwall. Wartime excavations by C.K. Croft Andrew. Cornish Archaeology 27, 27169.Google Scholar
Clark, A.J. 1983. The testimony of the topsoil. In Maxwell, G.S. (ed.), The Impact of Aerial Reconnaissance on Archaeology, 128–35. London: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 49.Google Scholar
Courty, M.-A., Goldberg, P. & Macphail, R.I. 1989. Soil Micromorphology in Archaeology. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Dimbleby, G.W. 1962. The Development of British Heathlands and their Soils. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dimbleby, G.W. 1985. The Palynology of Archaeological Sites. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Duchafour, P. 1982. Pedology. London: George, Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Dudley, D. 1942. A Late Bronze Age settlement on Trewey Downs, Zennor, Cornwall. Archaeological Journal 113, 132.Google Scholar
Elsdon, S. 1978. The pottery. In Christie, P.M. 1978, 396424.Google Scholar
Findlay, D.C., Colborne, G.J.N., Cope, D.W., Harrod, T.R., Hogan, D.V. & Staines, S.J. 1983. Soils of England and Wales, Sheet 5, South-West England. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.Google Scholar
Fisher, P.J. & Macphail, R.I. 1985. Studies of archaeological soils and deposits by micromorphological techniques. In Fieller, N.R.J. Gilbertson, D.D. & Ralph, N.S.A. (eds), Palaeoenvironmental Investigations, 93125. Oxford: British Archaeological Report S258.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. 1983. The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor Part 2: North and East Dartmoor, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 49, 195241.Google Scholar
Gebhardt, A., Bigot, B. & Marguerie, D. 1988. Les Chantiers Archaeologiques d'Er Grab et la Table-des-Marchands (Locmariaquer, Morbihan): rapport d'études sédimentaires et palynogiques. Unpublished report, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie, Université de Rennes I.Google Scholar
Gebhardt, A. 1990. Evolution du palaeopaysage agricole dans le Nord-Ouest de la France. Unpublished Thesis, Université de Rennes 1.Google Scholar
Gebhardt, A. & Marguerie, D. 1991. Etude palaeoenvironmentale de la transformation du paysage Amoricains sous l'influence de l'homme Neolithique. In Actes XVI Colloque Interrégional sur le Neolithique, Paris 1989, Document Archeologie Française.Google Scholar
Gebhardt, A. 1993. Soil micromorphological evidence of soil deterioration since the mid-Holocene in Brittany, France. The Holocene, 3(4) 333–41.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. 1978. Bronze Age Pottery in the North-East of England. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, S. 1984. Flint arrowheads: typology and interpretation. Lithics 5, 1939.Google Scholar
Griffith, F.M. 1984. Archaeological investigations at Colliford Reservoir, Bodmin Moor, 1977–78. Cornish Archaeology 23, 47139.Google Scholar
Harris, D. & Trudgian, P. 1984. The excavation of three cairns at Stannon, Bodmin Moor. Cornish Archaeology 23, 141–56.Google Scholar
Healy, F. 1988. Discussion of the pottery and lithic material. In Christie, P.M. 1988, 138–53.Google Scholar
Hencken, H.O'N. 1928. An excavation at Chysauster. Journal of the British Archaeological Association, ns 34, 145–64.Google Scholar
Hencken, H.O'N. 1933. An excavation by H.M. Office of Works at Chysauster, Cornwall, 1931. Archaeologia 83, 237–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, J., Janaway, R. & Richards, J. 1987. A curious clinker. Journal of Archaeological Science 14, 353–65.Google Scholar
Hodgson, J.M. 1974. Soil Survey Field Handbook. Harpenden: Soil Survey Technical Monograph 5.Google Scholar
Herring, P. 1987. National Trust West Penwith Archaeological Survey; Treveglos, Zennor. Unpublished report, Cornwall Archaeological Unit and National Trust.Google Scholar
Herring, P. with Crabtree, K., Straker, V. & West, S. 1993. Examining a Romano-British boundary at Foage, Zennor. Cornish Archaeology 32, 1728.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M. 1979. Early Flandrian hunters in the South West. Proceedings of the Devon Archaeology Society 37, 4893.Google Scholar
Janssen, C.R. 1959. Alnus as a disturbing factor in pollen diagrams. Acta Bot. Neere 8, 55–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, N. 1980. Later Bronze Age settlement in the South West. In Barrett, J. & Bradley, R. (eds), The British Later Bronze Age, 141–80. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 83.Google Scholar
Johnson, N. & Rose, P. 1982. Defended settlement in Cornwall — an illustrated discussion. In Miles, D. (ed.), The Romano-British Countryside, 151208. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 103.Google Scholar
Johnson, N. & Rose, P. 1994. Bodmin Moor, an Archaeological Survey. Vol. 1: the human landscape to 1800. London: English Heritage & Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.Google Scholar
Jordan, D., Haddon-Reece, D. & Bayliss, A., 1994. Radiocarbon Dates. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Kelly, R.S. 1988. Two late prehistoric circular enclosures near Harlech, Gwynedd. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 54, 101–52.Google Scholar
Lake, W.G. 1976. Report of Historical Biogeographical Survey of the Lizard Peninsula to Identify Heathland Changes. Nature Conservancy Council.Google Scholar
Longworth, I.H. 1984. Collared Urns of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: University Press Google Scholar
Lynch, F.M. 1972. Ring cairns and related monuments in Wales. Scottish Archaeological Porunt 4, 6180.Google Scholar
Lynch, F.M. 1993. Excavations in the Brenig Valley. Cambrian Archaeological Monograph 5.Google Scholar
Lynch, F.M. & Ritchie, J.N.G. 1975. Small Cairns in Argyll: some recent work. 2. Kerb Cairns. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 106, 30–3.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I. 1987. Soil Report on the Cairn and Field System at Chysauster, Penzance, Cornwall. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 111/87. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I., Romans, J.C.C. & Robertson, L. 1987. The application of micromorphology to the understanding of Holocene soil development in the British Isles with special reference to early cultivation. In Federoff, N. Bresson, L.-M. & Courty, M.-A. (eds), Soil Micromorphology, 647–56. Plaisir, France: Association Française pour l'Etude du Sol.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I. 1990. Soil report on Cam Brea, Redruth, Cornwall, with some Reference to Similar Sites in Brittany, France. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 55/90. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I. 1991. The archaeological soils and sediments. In Sharpies, N. (ed.), Maiden Castle: excavations and field survey 1985–6, 106–18. London: Historic Buildings & Monuments Commission Archaeological Report 19.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I. 1992. Soil micromorphological evidence of ancient soil erosion. In Bell, M. & Boardman, J., Ancient and Modern Soil Erosion, 197215. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I. & Cruise, G.M. 1996. Soil micromorphology. In Bell, M. Fowler, P.J. & Hillson, S.W. (eds), The Experimental Earthwork Project, 1960–1992, 96107. York: Council for British Archaeology, Research Report 100.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I., Courty, M.A. & Gebhardt, A. 1990. Soil micromorphological evidence of early agriculture in north west Europe. In Thomas, K. (ed.), Soils and early agriculture. World Archaeology 20(1), 5369.Google Scholar
Maltby, E. & Caseldine, C.J. 1982. Prehistoric soil and vegetation development on Bodmin Moor, Southwestern England. Nature 297, 397400.Google Scholar
Mays, S.A. 1989. The Human Remains from Chysauster Kerbed Ring-Cairn, Cornwall. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 13/89. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
McKinley, J.I. 1992. Cremations. In Russell-White, C.J. et al. , Excavations at three Early Bronze Age burial monuments in Scotland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 58, 285323.Google Scholar
Miles, H. 1975. Barrows on the St. Austell Granite. Cornish Archaeology 14, 582.Google Scholar
Moore, P.D. & Willmot, A. 1978. Prehistoric forest clearance and the development of peatlands in the uplands and lowlands of Britain. VIth International Peat Congress, 115. Poznan, Poland.Google Scholar
Moore, P.D. & Webb, J.A. 1978. An Illustrated Guide to Pollen Analysis. London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Mücher, H.J. 1974. Micromorphology of slope deposits: the necessity for a classification. In Rutherford, G.K. (ed.), Soil Microscopy, 553–66. Ontario: Limestone Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, C.P. 1986. Thin Section Preparation of Soils and Sediments. Berkhamsted: Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Mytum, H.C. 1982. Rural settlement of the Roman period in north and east Wales. In Miles, D. (ed.), The Romano-British Countryside, 313–35. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 103.Google Scholar
Parker-Pearson, M. 1990. The production and distribution of Bronze Age pottery in south-west Britain. Cornish Archaeology 13, 532.Google Scholar
Parker-Pearson, M. 1995. Southwestern Bronze Age pottery. In Kinnes, I. & Varndell, G. (eds), ‘Unbaked Urns of Rudely Shape’; Essays on British and Irish pottery for Ian Longworth, 89100. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph 55.Google Scholar
Peacock, D.P.S. 1969a. Neolithic pottery production in Cornwall. Antiquity 43, 145–9.Google Scholar
Peacock, D.P.S. 1969b. A contribution to the study of Glastonbury ware from south-western Britain. Antiquaries Journal 49, 4161.Google Scholar
Pollard, S.H.M. & Russell, P.M.G. 1969. Excavation of round barrow 248b, Upton Pyne, Exeter. Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 27, 4978.Google Scholar
Pool, P.A.S. 1973. The Place-Names of West Penwith. Penzance.Google Scholar
Pool, P.A.S. 1990. Henry Crozier and his discovery of Chysauster, Cornish Archaeology 29, 99105.Google Scholar
Preston-Jones, A. & Rose, P. 1987. Mrs. Hurn's Urn. Cornish Archaeology 26, 8595.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 1976. Fen-edge land management in the Bronze Age. In Burgess, C. & Miket, R. (eds), Settlement and Economy in the Third and Second Millennia B.C., 2950. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 33.Google Scholar
Quinnell, H. 1986. Cornwall during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Cornish Archaeology 25, 111–34.Google Scholar
Ritchie, J.N.G. & MacLaren, A. 1972. Ring-cairns and related monuments in Scotland. Scottish Archaeological Forum 4, 117.Google Scholar
Ritchie, J.N.G. & Thornber, I. 1975. Small cairns in Argyll: some recent work. 1. Cairns in the Aline Valley, Morvern, Argyll. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 106, 1538.Google Scholar
Roberts, A.J. 1987. Late Mesolithic occupation of the Cornish Coast at Gwithian: preliminary results. In Rowley-Conwy, P. Zvelebil, M., & Blankholm, H.P., (eds), Mesolithic Northwest Europe: recent trends, 131–7. Sheffield: University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Romans, J.C.C. & Robertson, L. 1974. Some aspects of the genesis of alpine and upland soils in the British Isles. In Rutherford, G.K. (ed.), Soil Microscopy, 498510. Ontario: Limestone Press.Google Scholar
Romans, J.C.C. & Robertson, L. 1983. The environment of north Britain: soils. In Chapman, J.C. & Mytum, H.C. (eds), The George Jobey Conference: settlement in north Britain 100 BC–AD 1000, 5580. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 118.Google Scholar
Russell, V. 1971. West Penwith Survey. Truro: Cornwall Archaeological Society.Google Scholar
Scaife, R.G. 1980. Late-Devensian and Flandrian palaeoecological studies in the Isle of Wight. Unpublished Ph. D. thesis: University of London.Google Scholar
Shipman, P., Foster, G. & Schoeninger, M. 1984. Burnt bones and teeth: an experimental study of colour, morphology, crystal structure and shrinkage. Journal of Archaeological Science 11, 307–35.Google Scholar
Steiner, M.C., Kuhn, S.L., Werner, S. & Bar-Yosef, O. 1995. Differential burning, recrystallisation and fragmentation of archaeological bone. Journal of Archaeological Science 22, 223–37.Google Scholar
Thomas, C. 1966. The character and origins of Roman Dumnonia. In Thomas, C. (ed.), Rural Settlement in Roman Britain, 7498. London: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 7.Google Scholar
Tite, M.S. & Mullins, C.E. 1971. Enhancement of the magnetic susceptibility of soils on archaeological sites. Archaeometry 13, 209–19.Google Scholar
Tomalin, D.J. 1983. British Biconical Urns; their character, chronology and their relationship with indigenous Early Bronze Age ceramics. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, University of Southampton.Google Scholar
Tomalin, D.J. 1988. Armorican vases à anses and their occurrence in Southern Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 54, 203–21.Google Scholar
Tomalin, D.J. 1995. Cognition, ethnicity and some implications for linguistics in the perception and perpetration of Collared Urn art. In Kinnes, I. & Varndell, G. (eds), ‘Unbaked Urns of Rudely Shape’; Essays on British and Irish Pottery for Ian Longworth, 101–12. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph 55.Google Scholar
Vliet-Lanoe, B. van 1982. Structures et microstructures associées à la formation de glace de ségrégation: leurs conséquences. Proceedings IV Canadian Permafrost Conference, 116–22. Ottawa: National Research Council of Canada.Google Scholar
Wahl, J. 1982. Leichenbranduntersuchungen. Ein Überlick über die Bearbeitungs- und Aussagemölichkeiten von Brandgräbern. Praehistorische Zeitschrift 57, 1125.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G.J. 1965. The excavation of a cairn at St Neot, Bodmin Moor. Cornish Archaeology 4, 49.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G.J., Fleming, A. & Smith, K. 1979. The Shaugh Moor project: first report, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 45, 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, A.H. 1988. Survey and excavation of ring cairns in S.E. Dyfed and on Gower, West Glamorgan. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 54, 153–72.Google Scholar
Wells, C. 1960. A study of cremation. Antiquity 34, 2937.Google Scholar
Williams, D.F. 1983. Petrology of ceramics. In Kempe, D.R.C. & Harvey, A.P. (eds), The Petrology of Archaeological Artifacts, 301–39. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. et al. 1986. Scord of Brouster, An Early Agricultural Settlement on Shetland. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, Monograph 9.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. & Cane, C. 1991. The Bronze Age pottery. In Nowakowski, J., Trethellan Farm, Newquay, the excavation of a lowland Bronze Age settlement and Iron Age cemetery. Cornish Archaeology 30, 5242.Google Scholar