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Query

Site name Ballowal Cairn, Carn Gluze, St Just in Penwith
Site number 173
Burial codes 4002 4005 4022 4024 4025 4028 4030 4033 4041 4048 4051 4065 4075 4084 4091 4104 4111 4128 4143 4154 4155 4156 4159 4161 4181 3002 3005 3022 3024 3025 3028 3030 3033 3041 3045 3051 3053 3065 3075 3082 3091 3094 3104 3111 3128 3143 3154 3155 3156 3181
2500bc-14/1300bc A barrow of most elaborate construction which comprised an outer wall of massive blocks of granite, surrounding a second wall, the latter very well built and corbelled in some places to a height of 3.6m. This enclosed a pile of stones. A third concentric wall also corbelled but of smaller stones was inside. The space between these walls was piled with large flat stones dropped in aslant. Seven cists and two graves were found in the barrow which covered a range of periods of interment.

Within the innermost wall was a small covered paved gallery, oriented SSW at its outer edge, with a (probable Romano-British) stone cist separate and directly behind, over the inner revetment, and containing unburnt bones of animals (including lamb) and potsherds. Beneath the paving of the gallery were quantities of burned human skeletal material and pottery fragments 'apparently of the Bronze Age'. In the central structure were 5 stone cists in a rough circle at ground level enclosed by an oval wall. There was pottery in these cists. In one of these, a small cist in the central wall, and covered by three stones was an upright bucket-shaped vessel of the Late Bronze Age filled with dark earth and charred wood, on the top of which lay two small burnt bone fragments. There were sherds of another vessel with two lugs in this cist. In another was a miniature (?)collared urn on its side by the south east wall. At the end of an oval space was a T-shaped pit in which a large stone bead was found, but no human skeletal material.

Possibly the early gallery had been incorporated with the later cist and (?)pit burials, into one large cairn in the Late Bronze Age.
14/1300bc-8/700bc As recorded above, in the central structure were 5 stone cists in a rough circle at ground level enclosed by an oval wall. In one of these, a small cist in the central wall, and covered by three stones was an upright bucket-shaped vessel of the Late Bronze Age filled with dark earth and charred wood, on the top of which lay two small burnt bone fragments. There were sherds of another vessel with two lugs in this cist.
Remains/Period Y4 Y3
County Cornwall
Region SW
National grid square SW
X coordinate 355
Y coordinate 314
Bibliographic source Borlase 1878-81, 1886, 1897, Hencken 1932, Patchett 1950


Query

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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004