Chûn Quoit
The Chûn Quoit is an approximately 5500 year old dolmen from the Neolithic Age and the best preserved quoit in the county of Cornwall . Chûn is derived from the Cornish Chy-an-Woone , which means house above the lowlands .
location
The Chûn Quoit is located west of Penzance between Pendeen and Great Bosullow and can be reached via a path that branches off to the left to the southeast halfway on the road from Morvah to Bojewyan. It can also be reached via the Bocaswell Downs road if, coming from Pendeen, after 1.5 km, take the path to the left towards the northeast. The Quoit is located on a ridge with a view over the surrounding gentle hills to the open sea. It can be assumed that the location was intended to claim a certain area and that the community was bound more closely to one another and to this area through cult activities carried out here.
There are other megalithic sites in the area :
- Boscawen-ûn
- Lanyon Quoit
- Mên-an-Tol
- Merry Maidens
- Mulfra Quoit
- Boskednan stone circle
- Tregeseal stone circle
- Tregiffian
- Zennor Quoit
An Iron Age settlement is the Hillfort Chûn Castle, 200 m away .
construction
Like other quoits, the Chûn Quoit was probably a portal grave and covered by a mound of earth, remains of the stone fortifications of which are still present. The mushroom-shaped, slightly elliptical cover plate, which is supported by four 1.5 m high pillars, has axis lengths of 3.3 m and 3.0 m and has a diameter of 80 cm at the thickest point. In the southeast there appears to have been an entrance that led to the chamber. Presumably, the mound of earth was exposed on this side and had an entrance area. Five bearing stones of the chamber and two slabs in front, which formed the supporting stones of the portal, have been preserved.
In Cornwall and Wales, quoit is the name given to megalithic systems in which two upright stones of equal height with a door stone in between form the front of a chamber that is occasionally covered with a very large capstone.
Research history
In 1769 the megalithic complex was first mentioned in a publication by the archaeologist William Borlase and illustrated with a drawing. Borlase said in his brief account also that the Cornish dolmens because of the disk-shaped capstone, of a coupling ring (Engl. Quoit ) reminded quoits are called. In 1864 John Thomas Blight made an etching of the Chûn Quoit in his work Churches of West Cornwall . In 1872, William Copeland Borlase , a great-grandson of William Borlase, provided a more detailed description. He reported on a circular embankment made of stone and earth with a diameter of 12 m, which rose towards the dolmen and was bordered by curbs, and made the adjacent drawing. Excavations were carried out that did not reveal any significant findings. Despite the excavation finds, modern research assumes that megalithic systems were used as communal graves for a long time. Even in the Bronze Age, cremations are said to have taken place in front of or on these grounds.
literature
- John Barnatt: Prehistoric Cornwall: The Ceremonial Monuments . Turnstone Press Limited 1982, ISBN 0855001291 .
- Ian McNeil Cooke: Standing Stones of the Land's End . Cornwall: Men-an-Tol Studio 1998, ISBN 0951237195 .
- Homer Sykes: Mysterious Britain - Fact and Folklore . Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1993, ISBN 0297831968 , p. 25.
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Gossip: Cornwall: An Archaeological and Historical Assessment , Historic Environment Service 1999
- ^ William Borlase: Antiquities Historical and Monumental of the County of Cornwall , Bowyer and Nichols, London 1769
- ^ John Thomas Blight: Churches of West Cornwall with Notes of Antiquities of the District , 1864
- ^ William Copeland Borlase: Naenia Cornubiae , Longmans 1872
- ^ John Barnatt: Prehistoric Cornwall: The Ceremonial Monuments , Turnstone Press Limited 1982
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 55 " N , 5 ° 38 ′ 15.7" W.