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Carn Brea, Redruth
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Carn Brea, Redruth
Carn Brea (Cornish: Karnbre) is a civil parish and hilltop site in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The population of Carn Brea including Bosleake and Church Coombe was 8,013 at the 2011 census. The hilltop site is situated approximately one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Redruth. The settlements of Bosleake, Brea, Broad Lane, Carn Arthen, Carn Brea Village, Carnkie, Four Lanes, Grillis, Illogan Highway, Pencoys, Penhallick, Piece, Pool, Tolskithy, Tregajorran, Treskillard, Tuckingmill and West Tolgus are in the parish.
The Neolithic settlement at Carn Brea was a tor enclosure occupied between around 3700 and 3400 BC. Roger Mercer directed archaeological excavations of the site in 1970 and 1972.
A two-acre (0.81-hectare) inner enclosure was surrounded by one of eleven acres (4.5 hectares). The ramparts consisted of stone walls with an earth bank and ditch. Traces of fourteen platforms on which would have stood Neolithic long houses have been found within its ramparts, along with pottery and flint artefacts.
The settlement had an estimated population of 100 to 150. There is evidence that the occupants cleared the surrounding land for farming by burning away the undergrowth and removing stones although the acid soil obliterated any environmental evidence. Nearby outcrops of rock suitable for making axes would have contributed to the village's economy. Edge grinding stones, blanks and incomplete and finished axes found on the site indicate the inhabitants were accomplished stoneworkers and traded their products. Pottery found on the site appears to have been made from gabbroic clay originating nearly 20 miles (32 km) to the south in the present day parish of St Keverne suggesting a complex economic network in the area.
Over 700 flint arrowheads were found scattered at the site. Despite nineteenth-century destruction (work to level and widen the entrance track), there was a concentration of arrow heads around a probable entrance to the enclosure, Mercer's site E. These arrows may have been used by a large group of archers in an organized assault upon a defended site. Every timber structure on the site had been burnt, and charcoal was the only organic matter that survived the acid soils. The earthworks may have been deliberately damaged by invaders.
In the Iron Age the site was reoccupied and minerals were mined from the hillside. One hut floor was excavated, and sherds of characteristically Iron Age types, including 'cordoned ware', were found. The fortified gateway, Mercer's Site G, was of Iron Age form, and Mercer suggests that although Site G produced no Iron Age artifacts, it is post-Neolithic. The crushed-rock road surface showed little sign of contemporary wear and could never have been subjected to even a modicum of traffic.
A hoard of Gallo-Belgic gold staters originating from northeastern Gaul and Kent were found in the 18th century.
The Ravenna Cosmography, of around AD 700, refers to Purocoronavis (almost certainly a corruption of Durocornovium), 'a fort or walled settlement of the Cornovii' (unidentified, but possibly Tintagel or Carn Brea).
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Carn Brea, Redruth
Carn Brea (Cornish: Karnbre) is a civil parish and hilltop site in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The population of Carn Brea including Bosleake and Church Coombe was 8,013 at the 2011 census. The hilltop site is situated approximately one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Redruth. The settlements of Bosleake, Brea, Broad Lane, Carn Arthen, Carn Brea Village, Carnkie, Four Lanes, Grillis, Illogan Highway, Pencoys, Penhallick, Piece, Pool, Tolskithy, Tregajorran, Treskillard, Tuckingmill and West Tolgus are in the parish.
The Neolithic settlement at Carn Brea was a tor enclosure occupied between around 3700 and 3400 BC. Roger Mercer directed archaeological excavations of the site in 1970 and 1972.
A two-acre (0.81-hectare) inner enclosure was surrounded by one of eleven acres (4.5 hectares). The ramparts consisted of stone walls with an earth bank and ditch. Traces of fourteen platforms on which would have stood Neolithic long houses have been found within its ramparts, along with pottery and flint artefacts.
The settlement had an estimated population of 100 to 150. There is evidence that the occupants cleared the surrounding land for farming by burning away the undergrowth and removing stones although the acid soil obliterated any environmental evidence. Nearby outcrops of rock suitable for making axes would have contributed to the village's economy. Edge grinding stones, blanks and incomplete and finished axes found on the site indicate the inhabitants were accomplished stoneworkers and traded their products. Pottery found on the site appears to have been made from gabbroic clay originating nearly 20 miles (32 km) to the south in the present day parish of St Keverne suggesting a complex economic network in the area.
Over 700 flint arrowheads were found scattered at the site. Despite nineteenth-century destruction (work to level and widen the entrance track), there was a concentration of arrow heads around a probable entrance to the enclosure, Mercer's site E. These arrows may have been used by a large group of archers in an organized assault upon a defended site. Every timber structure on the site had been burnt, and charcoal was the only organic matter that survived the acid soils. The earthworks may have been deliberately damaged by invaders.
In the Iron Age the site was reoccupied and minerals were mined from the hillside. One hut floor was excavated, and sherds of characteristically Iron Age types, including 'cordoned ware', were found. The fortified gateway, Mercer's Site G, was of Iron Age form, and Mercer suggests that although Site G produced no Iron Age artifacts, it is post-Neolithic. The crushed-rock road surface showed little sign of contemporary wear and could never have been subjected to even a modicum of traffic.
A hoard of Gallo-Belgic gold staters originating from northeastern Gaul and Kent were found in the 18th century.
The Ravenna Cosmography, of around AD 700, refers to Purocoronavis (almost certainly a corruption of Durocornovium), 'a fort or walled settlement of the Cornovii' (unidentified, but possibly Tintagel or Carn Brea).
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