Basement in Cornwall
The basements in Cornwall are known locally as Fogou , and the name fuggy-holes is also documented.
Surname
The name goes back to the Cornish word for cave (similar to the local “Weem” (from uamh 'cave) for the basement in Scotland ).
distribution
The distribution of the Fogous in Cornwall is limited to the extreme southwest of the county including the Isles of Scilly ( Carn Gwavel ). Only nine of these plants survived. Clark and Maclean listed eight of them: Boleigh , Lower Boscaswell , Carn (Chapel) Euny , Chysauster , Halligye , Pendeen , Porthmeor and Piskey's Hall or Trewardreva. The existence of the Fogou von Boden Vean was confirmed in 1991 on the occasion of a magnetometer study . Clark and Maclean had also classified the Bosporthennis aboveground beehive hut as Fogou. Fogous also occur as above-ground structures, mostly within massive walls. The Fogous of Lower Boscaswell and Piskey's Hall were built semi-underground, the Fougous of Bosporthennis , Park Vorn and Porthmeor completely above ground. The number of known places that can be considered Fogous is not higher than 50. Ian Cooke, who carried out an exhaustive study of the monument type, only accepts eleven as Fogous, 25 other sites are classified by him as "likely". Eight matched those of Clark and Maclean. Its three additional ones are Higher Bodinar, Castallack and Treveneague. He did not yet know Bodean-Veor, but classifies a further 26 plants as "unlikely", including the Porth Mellon plant on the Isles of Scilly.
Time position
The excavation of Carn Euny showed that the Fogou (in three stages) was between the 5th and the 2nd century BC. Was built. Hencken pointed out that Carn Euny's pottery dates from the 1st century before the 1st century AD. Halligye's pottery suggests that it was used from the 4th century BC. Until the 2nd century AD. An Iron Age edge shard from the bottom of the Lower Boscaswell entrance shows that it was not used before the 2nd century BC. Chr. This corresponds to the usage period of most Fogous.
Apart from the normal basement structure consisting of chambers and corridors, the facilities have:
- Carn Euny
- a circular chamber that, according to the latest research by Christie, had no cantilever vaults , but a wooden roof, if there was a roof.
- The floor was paved with flat slabs.
- a niche at floor level of 0.91 × 0.91 m; was 0.6 m deep.
- Drainage; a series of covered drainpipes, and a cesspool.
Drainage was also noticed in Porthmeor and High Bodinar.
- Pending
- a large secondary chamber 7.72 m long and an average of 1.65 m wide and 1.27 m high shows parallels with the secondary chamber of Treveneague, which is also hollowed out of the earth (earth cut) and 4.57 m long, an average of 1, 83 m wide and 1.22 m high. Both rooms have a narrow entrance.
- Halligye
- In addition to the entrance and exit corridor and two large rooms, it has a small adjoining chamber. It starts from the end of a curved chamber with a total length of 16.76 m. Its dimensions have not been established, but it appears that it was less than 2.5 meters long and barely high enough to crawl into. Like the (earth cut) side chamber of Treveneague, it was oval and accessible via a hatch (height and width 0.41 m).
- The end areas of the curved chamber and the secondary chamber were cut into the rock (rock-cut).
- The curved chamber has a threshold cut out of the rock. It is 0.61 m high and 0.46 m wide. Clark notes that this threshold is unique in the Cornish Fogous.
- The restoration of Halligye prompted a partial excavation of the Fogou. The excavator rejected the meaning as a threshold. The long curved chamber ended, so startin originally at the obstacle. He stated that when the chamber was expanded, the natural ledge had been left undone. Its interpretation is based primarily on the construction of the walls. According to M. Clinton, however, a change in the composition of the walls does not have to indicate an extension. The extension would only affect the chamber length of 2–2.5 m and the addition of the small side chamber. Side chambers were, however, part of the original equipment of the Pendeen and Treveneague facilities.
- Halligye originally had an exit that led into the moat in the enclosure. Access was restricted by two parallel corridors. The junction of the north and south corridors is defined by a portal (a combination of two protruding posts and a low lintel).
- When Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan visited Fogous in 1863, two openings were noticed in the walls of the passage on the inner side of the portal. Their job was to hold the ends of a beam that locked a (not found) door.
- Treveneague
- the “exit gate” of Halligye was found analogously at Treveneague, where a straight, at least 10.36 m long chamber ends in two parallel corridors, the access of which consists of two sets of protruding posts with lintels.
- Castallack
- The location of a collapsed dike (earth-cut - with unexplored length) prompts Ian Cooke to point out that he, too, may have ended up in a trench in the confinement.
- the Fogou points in all its dimensions to the dry stone wall basement in Ireland. It contained a pair of door stones at the junction of two corridors or chambers.
- two blocking stones in the vicinity of the bottlenecks point to locking devices.
- Boleigh
- the only windpipe in a British basement comes from the Fogou of Boleigh. However, it is secondary and dates from the 17th century.
function
As for its function, the Carn Euny excavation brought some key evidence. The original interpretation had always preferred the storage room as a function. It has also been established that there is a ritual dimension to the Cornish Fogous. Clark first put forward the thesis in relation to Boleigh's Fogou. The presence of a carved figure on one of the stones in the wall provided the main impetus for the argument. A fogou could have been an underground temple. Christie suggested that Carn Euny and other Fogous had more than a purely useful role. Chances are some have served as cult centers. Ian Cooke was unequivocal in his acceptance of Fogous as ritual centers of high status family units. He combined the ritual dimension with the participation of these families in the mining of tin and copper. Should a Cornish Fogous ritual dimension emerge, this would also affect the role of the architecturally related basements in Ireland and Scotland. However, not all accept the ritual theory. Maclean, in a reassessment of the monuments, indicated the function as a refuge as the most likely impetus for the construction of Fogous. This contradicts the fact that the Fogou of Lower Boscaswell was built semi-underground and the Fogou of Porthmeor entirely above ground.
See also
literature
- Mark Clinton: The Souterrains of Ireland. Bray Co. Wicklow, Wordwell 2001, ISBN 1-869857-49-6 , pp. 179 ff.
- Patricia M. Christie: Cornish souterrains in the light of recent research. In: Bulletin of the Institute of Archeology. 16, 1979, ISSN 0076-0722 , pp. 187-213.
- Iain McNeil Cooke: Mother and Sun. The Cornish fogou. Men-An-Tol Studio, Penzance 1993, ISBN 0-9512371-6-0 .
- Rachel Maclean: The Fogou: An Investigation of Function. In: Cornish Archeology. 31, 1992, ISSN 0070-024X , pp. 41-64.
- Charles Thomas: Britain and Ireland in early christian times. AD 400-800. Thames and Hudson, London 1971, ISBN 0-500-56002-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maclean 1992, p. 59
- ↑ Christie 1979, p. 193
- ↑ Thomas 1972, p. 75
- ↑ Ian Cooke 1993, p. 45
- ↑ Christie 1978, p. 309
- ↑ Hencken 1932, p. 141
- ^ Ian Cooke 1993, p. 60
- ↑ Clark et al. 1957, p. 218
- ↑ Christie 1978, p. 309
- ↑ Christie 1978, p. 314
- ↑ Startin 1981, p. 319
- ↑ Clark 1961, p. 30
- ↑ Startin 1982, p. 185
- ↑ Christie 1979, p. 191
- ↑ Christie 1978, p. 332
- ↑ Christie 1979. pp. 210 + 213
- ↑ Ian Cooke 1993, p. 327
- ↑ Christie 1978, p. 332
- ↑ Maclean 1992, p. 41