Chûn Castle
Chûn Castle is a hill fort from the Iron Age and is located in the county of Cornwall in England . Settlement of the complex took place essentially from the third century BC. Chr. To the first century AD. A repopulation probably took place in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Chûn Castle occupies a central position within eight detectable fortifications to the west of Penwith , each of which is situated on a well defendable hill.
location
Chûn Castle is located on the peninsula of Penwith in west Cornwall south of the road from Madron to Morvah . To the west and east there are views of the sea. The Chûn Quoit is 200 m away . Other Iron Age settlements nearby are Chysauster and Carn Euny .
The following megalithic sites can also be found in the area :
- Boskednan
- Boscawen-ûn
- Lanyon Quoit
- Mên-an-Tol
- Merry Maidens
- Mulfra Quoit
- Tregeseal
- Tregiffian
- Zennor Quoit
construction
The hill fort is encompassed by two roughly circular massive walls, each surrounded by a moat. Inside the complex are the remains of several stone-walled round houses that were destroyed by later activities. One of these residential complexes is oval in shape and could be related to the later phase of resettlement in the post-Roman period after AD 400. Traces of stone benches could be the remains of later animal enclosures.
The only entrance to the complex is a stone-lined passage through the inner ramparts on the west side. The exit through the outer ramparts is offset. In the corridor in between there is a stone wall, so this area could have served a defensive function.
Originally the entrance was through the outer wall directly opposite the inner entrance, so that both were oriented towards the much older chamber tomb of Chûn Quoit . The redesign of the entrance area could have been part of the later repopulation in the 5th century AD.
Research history
Chûn Castle was first mentioned in 1754 by the archaeologist William Borlase in his work Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the County of Cornwall . Charles Knight made a first sketch in 1845 for his work Old England: A Pictorial Museum . It shows the two ring walls and the entrances that are offset from one another. There are also several stone walls between the two fortification walls.
A total of five excavation campaigns took place between 1862 and 1930. Most recently, extensive excavations were carried out in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which also provided evidence of repopulation in the 5th century AD. The ceramics and stone tools found could be dated to a period from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. On the northern edge of the hilltop settlement, a furnace was discovered that contained traces of tin and iron slag, which indicates that metalworking was carried out on site during the Iron Age. Evidence that the settlement was dissolved by war could not be provided, as the acidic soil had destroyed all traces of organic materials such as wood, leather, bones, braids and tissue.
literature
- Edward Thurlow Leeds: Excavations at Chun Castle in Penwith, Cornwall . J. Johnson 1931.
- Craig Weatherhill: Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly . Alison Hodge 1985, ISBN 0906720125 .
- James Gossip: Chûn Downs, Cornwall. An Archaeological and Historical Assessment . Historic Environment Service, Cornwall County Council 1999.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Cornwall's Archaeological Heritage. Chûn Castle. July 4, 2009, accessed August 24, 2012 .
- ^ Stone Pages. Chûn Castle. Retrieved on August 24, 2012 .
- ↑ FOBO: From Old Books dot Org.Old England: A Pictorial Museum. (No longer available online.) June 5, 2010, archived from the original on August 22, 2012 ; accessed on August 24, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Ancient Cornwall. Chûn Castle. Retrieved on August 24, 2012 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 '55.3 " N , 5 ° 38' 1.3" W.