Excavations 2008
Boden Excavation, Manaccan, Cornwall.  19 Sept. - 5 Oct., 2008
 

The Society's second excavation season focussed on Boden on the Lizard at a site where it had been established, by a prior trial excavation, that there was a Bronze Age structure.

The excavation was managed by James Gossip, with the assistance of Jo Sturgess and Anna Tyacke, and included a full training programme for participants.

 

 

 

Shown right are Dig Director, James Gossip (in the pit) and CAS President, Tony Blackman

   

The excavation is being organised and funded by Cornwall Archaeological Society and the Meneage Archaeological Group.

Conservation of the pottery is being carried out and funded by the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro.

The site is being run as a training excavation for Cornwall Archaeological Society members with the aim of answering some important research questions raised by preliminary work carried out by Historic Environment Service, Cornwall County Council in 2003.

The excavation has revealed more of the roundhouse first revealed in 2003 and has produced finds from both the Bronze Age and Iron Age including decorated pottery and worked stone.

The roundhouse is cut into the natural bedrock, typical of BronzeAge houses in lowalnd Cornwall and has a diameter of approximately 10m.

Within this scoop the Bronze Age builders would have erected a ring of wooden posts to help support a conical thatched roof. An entrance is likely to be found on the south-eastern edge of the roundhouse.

When the excavation is complete we are hoping to have identified postholes cut into the base of the roundhouse and other internal features such as hearths for cooking.

We are also hoping to recover more of the very large Middle Bronze Age pot known as Trevisker Ware, fragments of which were found in 2003. Radiocarbon dating tells us that this pot was deposited in the bottom of the roundhouse in the period 1500 – 1300 BC. Fragments from at least five other vessels have been found.

The large decorated vessel is the largest of its kind in Cornwall and probably Britain and appears to have been deliberately broken and then laid in the roundhouse shortly before it was abandoned. This raises questions as to whether the structure had a ritual or domestic function. The pot was richly decorated with chevrons and other patterns formed by impressing twisted cord into the unfired clay.

During October and November of 2003 a team from the Historic Environment Service, Cornwall County Council carried out a programme of archaeological recording as part of an evaluation of a Bronze Age structure, Iron Age enclosure and fogou at Boden Vean, St Anthony-in-Meneage, Cornwall. The site is situated one kilometre to the south of the village of Manaccan. This original work was funded by English Heritage and came about because of events that began in 1991 when pipelaying by the landowner led to the discovery of a shaft containing Romano-British pottery and rotary querns (grinding stones for wheat), and to the rediscovery of a fogou (subterranean passage) which although  documented in this area since the early nineteenth century (recorded by Rev Richard Polwhele, vicar of Manaccan in 1816) its exact whereabouts were unknown. Geophysical survey by English Heritage in 1992 and 1993 identified a possible fogou and large ditched enclosure – in Cornwall these are often known as ‘rounds’, but in fact these settlement enclosures can be round, oval or rectangular. In 1996 a void opened in the ground during agricultural operations, exposing a subterranean tunnel and archaeological excavation led to the discovery of the stone-walled fogou.

 

The 2003 excavations were undertaken to better understand the fogou and the enclosure.

The Iron Age fogou (circa 400 BC), the enclosure and features inside it  produced an unusually large assemblage for Cornwall of pottery from this period and suggests that people were settled here in the Iron Age. The fogou was deliberately filled in at this time and had a scatter of pottery, worked stones and two beads buried at the bottom.

The settlement appears to have been unoccupied at the end of the Iron Age but Romano-British pottery indicates re-use of the site in the early centuries AD. An important collection of a style of pottery known as Gwithian style platters showed the site to have been in use again around the sixth century AD. For the first time a radiocarbon date has been secured for this type of pottery of AD 590 – 670. An important element of the project has been the dating programme, providing unusually early dates for both the fogou and enclosure and a date for Gwithian style ceramics.
 
Day 2
 
 
 

The archaeologists-in-training are enjoying themselves

(it is not raining yet!)

 
Tony Blackman with members of the Young Archaeologists of Cornwall (YAC)
 
 
On the 28th of September the site was visited by BBC Spotlight and the two-minute segment is shown here.
 
Some Photographs from the Excavation
   
 
   
 
   
More details of the excavation, including preliminary findings, will be published in due course.

A CAS member, Dr Niall Finneran, is currently directing (with a colleague from English Heritage Bristol, Mr Nick Hanks) University of Winchester archaeological training excavations at Slaughterbridge near Camelford. The site includes the Deserted Medieval Village of Old Melorne, an 18th century garden built by Lady Falmouth then resident at Worthyvale Manor, as well as test pitting and geophysical survey on the area popularly known as the Camlann Battlefield, the legendary site of King Arthur's last battle, though also a site of a later battle between the Britons and English. In addition they are undertaking extensive landscape archaeology work in the hinterland of Tintagel. There is something for everyone; apart from excavation itself they also teach surveying, planning, landscape archaeology, post-excavation techniques, environmental archaeology, conservation, cultural heritage management issues and experimental archaeology. Last year students from SOAS, University of London as well as the United Arab Emirates (featured on the BBC Radio Cornwall Breakfast Programme) worked with them. Camping is available on site and they are able to offer a range of flexible options for attendance. The excavation itself is based at the Arthurian Centre, Slaughterbridge. This year they will be working on site in late June and early August. For more information please contact Dr Niall Finneran (lecturer in early medieval archaeology, University of Winchester) at: Niall.Finneran@winchester.ac.uk.


Please also see Nick Hank's Slaughterbridge blogspot: http://slaughterbridgedig.blogspot.com/
 
Excavations 2007

Excavations at St. Newlyn East

Monday August 27th to Friday 7th September, 2007

  
Two weeks of evaluative excavations at St Newlyn East were undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Society during August and September 2007. The site is a crop-mark enclosure with an overall diameter of approximately 70m defined by a ditch with traces of an external bank, which is visible on aerial photographs. It is anticipated that the site will prove to be a henge monument dating to the Later Neolithic period (c 3000-2500 cal BC). If so, this will be the first Neolithic henge monument to be examined in Cornwall since the early 1960s when Castilly was investigated by the Society, and its investigation will therefore make a significant contribution to archaeological knowledge in the county.

Castilly Henge

   
 

The aerial photograph that prompted the excavation.  The circular 'henge' shape is in the centre of the photograph.

Photo courtesy of the Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Service.

 
   
01 October 2008 Preliminary Findings  
Summary
Excavations revealed that the site was not a henge.
However, importantly they did demonstrate that the enclosure was associated with at least two phases of activity, the first during the first millennium BC and the second in the Roman and post-Roman periods in
the 3rd to 6th centuries AD. This implies that the site was an important place in the landscape over many centuries, and may have been associated with high status activities.
What next?
The finds are currently being examined by specialists and a sample of bone from the cattle jaw has been submitted for radiocarbon dating. When all the
analyses have been completed the site will be written up and published in the Cornwall Archaeological Society’s journal Cornish Archaeology.		  
Read the full report here.  
   
28 November 2007 Update:   
EXCAVATIONS AT HAY CLOSE, ST NEWLYN EAST 2007

Introduction
Archaeological excavations at Hay Close, St Newlyn East were undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Society over a two week period during the summer of 2007. The site is located in central Cornwall at the edge of a spur on the northern side of the village of St Newlyn East (SW 8270356503).
Aerial photographic evidence revealed an enclosure of around 60m in diameter with an internal ditch and an external bank. This suggested that the site was a Neolithic henge dating between c 2900-2500 cal BC. A geophysical survey of the western part of the enclosure confirmed the presence of a ditch and an outer bank, and field walking in advance of the excavations led to the recovery of flint tools and other artefacts, which suggested that the site had been occupied over several millennia.
The objectives of the excavations were threefold; to establish whether the site was suitable as a long-term excavation project, to provide experience of excavation for members of the Cornwall Archaeological Society, and to investigate a site, which could make a significant contribution to the study of Cornwall’s past.

The Excavation
During the course of the excavations seven trenches were opened with assistance from volunteers who were members of the Cornwall Archaeological Society. Five trenches were targeted upon the enclosure. Of these, two were excavated entirely within the enclosure and three were excavated through the enclosure’s bank and ditch. Two further trenches were located over crop-mark ditches beyond the enclosure, which had been identified from aerial photographs.
The trenches revealed that the site was enclosed by a substantial ditch which reached a depth of nearly 3m, and that there were traces of an external bank. Very few internal features were found inside the enclosure. The study of the artefacts and site stratigraphy is at an early stage, which means that the interpretation of the data is tentative. The following summary is therefore based on current thought and is likely to be revised once the post excavation programme is completed.


Neolithic (4000-2500 cal BC) – Bronze Age (2500-1500 cal BC)
Flint artefacts were recovered which are likely to date to the Neolithic period along with one sherd of possible Early Neolithic and a few sherds of Middle Bronze Age pottery were found. However, none of these finds were associated with the earliest phase of the enclosure ditch. Most were unstratified, or were residual occurring in contexts which had produced finds of later periods. These artefacts may represent periodic visits to the site during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.


Late Bronze Age-Iron Age (1000 cal BC-AD43)
The majority of finds from the enclosure ditch comprised plain sherds of pottery, which are likely to date to first the millennium cal BC and a handful of diagnostic sherds which are of an Early Iron Age date. Some of these sherds appear to have been associated with the burial of a cattle jaw, which may have been attached to a skull that has not survived the acidic soil conditions. One of the trenches to the north of the enclosure revealed a series of deep inter-cutting ditches at the base of one of these was a large deposit of Iron slag. This evidence suggests that the first identifiable phase of activity associated with the enclosure occurred in the first millennium cal BC. However, there was little evidence for settlement-related activity, within the enclosure, which implies that it was not permanently occupied.


Roman-Post Roman (AD 43-600)
At least one piece of Roman pottery came from a high level in the ditch and a further deposit of Romano-British pottery was found in a pit located close to the southern inside edge of the enclosure. This feature also contained a finely-worked perforated stone weight. The upper fill of one of the sections through the enclosure ditch produced a quantity of post Roman slip-wares and amphora sherds that originated in the eastern Mediterranean. Similar pottery has been recovered from other sites along the north Cornish coast, most notably at Tintagel. The find of post Roman pottery is significant as it suggests that the site continued to hold importance into the protohistoric period when Christianity was becoming established.


Summary
The excavations did not confirm the site’s identification as a henge and as the primary fill of the ditch was devoid of finds the origins of the enclosure remain uncertain. Only the radiocarbon dating of charcoal may resolve when the site was constructed. However, importantly excavation did reveal that the enclosure was associated with at least two phases of activity, the first sometime during the first millennium cal BC and the second in the post-Roman period in the 5th or 6th centuries AD. This implies that the site was an important foci in the landscape over several generations, and if not a henge, the form of the enclosure suggests that it is a site type, which has not been encountered before.

Andy M Jones

  
   

Excavation Director, Dr. Andy Jones

 
   
Excavations in 2007 were relatively small-scale in extent and were designed to confirm the identification of the site as a henge and obtain dating information. It is hoped that the excavations will prove to be the first season of what will become the Society's annual training excavation.
 
 
Watch the ITV Westcountry on site interview made on Thursday, 30 August.  
 
You can also download the video in higher resolution in WMV format (3 Mb)  
Click here to download  
   
Coverage in the Cornish Guardian, September 5th.  

Click image for larger version

 
   
View a short video of the excavation site.  
 
   
And a very short video of the site being restored at the end of the excavation.  
 
   

Some photographs from the excavation:

 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
And, finally, the site is restored ready for the next crop of brassicas.