When in Avebury...

2005

2021

The Archaeology Files - Trethevy Quoit

Date of visit: 25 April 2021
Location: East of the village of St Cleer, 2 miles north of Liskeard, Cornwall
Time period: Neolithic, 4,000 BC to 2,500 BC
Type of site: A well-preserved Neolithic portal dolmen burial chamber
Photos: Trethevy Quoit site visit photo album 

Arriving at the five-space designated car park, the first thing you notice on a visit here are the signs indicating a World Heritage Site, not because of prehistoric monuments, but because of the mining landscape.  The reminder of Cornwall's mining heritage is everywhere, dotted about the landscape in all directions.  It's not the point of this site visit, but it is an interesting aside, and one that connects a more modern age with our ancient ancestors, through distinctive exploitation of the landscape.  I wonder what heed the miners paid monuments such as Trethevy Quoit, and I wonder if it had any influence on their traditions and superstitions.

Cornwall's rich mining heritage is evident all around, on a visit to Trethevy Quoit

Trethevy Quoit is a very nicely-preserved portal dolmen, a type of monument quite specific to Cornwall (and more usually, western Cornwall - Trethevy Quoit is an anomaly, being so far east), dating to the early or middle Neolithic (3500-2500BC.)  These structures are largely considered to be tombs, although it is not certain if this was their intended use - quite possibly they were multipurpose, or used in ceremony or worship.  

Trethevy Quoit.  Note the slightly raised ground around the base of the monument - possibly the remains of a mound or cairn which once covered the structure

The structure consists of five standing stones, topped by a huge capstone (estimated to weigh 10.5 tons), which slopes downwards from back-to-front at a much steeper angle than was originally designed.  This is because one of the supporting granite stones - the most westerly - collapsed at some point in the past, and now lies within the chamber itself.  Had this stone continued to stand, the capstone would rest roughly horizontally on top.  The structure stands 2.7 metres (9 feet) tall, and at its highest point, the capstone has a hole - possibly manmade - with one suggestion being that it was used for astronomical observations.  It is thought that the chamber was originally covered by a mound or cairn - you can see this in the slight remains of a low mound at the sides and back of the structure, but not at the entrance.  Local tradition states that the stones were set up by a giant, with the hole in the capstone being made by the giant's thumb, in order to lift the monument into its present position.  It is from this legend that the site gets an alternative name, The Giant's House.

A sketch of Trethevy Quoit from 1848 (artist unknown)

My overriding impression at Trethevy Quoit is one of awe, in how people managed to move such enormous hulks of granite - especially the raising of the capstone, and at a time when calories were so precious.  I believe this boils down to two aspects - firstly, a community must have had enough sustenance, and been confident in the supply of that sustenance, to undertake this project.  Second, a community must have had a complex level of organisation.  Simply put, once agriculture was adopted at the onset of the Neolithic, human communities evolved to become more sedentary and organised.  The supply of food was more reliable compared to the hunter-gatherer way of life, which in turn meant that communities started to lay down roots, explore myths, legends and spirituality associated with their immediate landscape, and began building monuments on a scale previously inaccessible.  Of course, none of this takes away from the amazing manpower required to lift such huge stones without the use of modern machinery - we simply couldn't do it today.

In November 2017, Trethevy Quoit was added to Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register, due to the damage previously caused by fencing and increasing erosion by livestock.  Nowadays, the site is fenced off in its own enclosure.

The Archaeology Files - Wayland's Smithy

Date of visit: 6 March 2020

Location: 7 miles east of Swindon, between the villages of Ashbury and Compton Beauchamp, Oxfordshire

Time period: Neolithic, 4,000 BC to 2,500 BC
Type of site: A well-preserved Neolithic long barrow of the Severn-Cotswolds tradition

Photos: Wayland's Smith site visit photo album 

On a crisp and misty March morning, you get a sense of the spiritual about Wayland's Smithy.  The Neolithic long barrow is accessible via a two-mile walk across big, flat open fields.  It's easy to think that nothing has changed since this monument was first created, for there seems to be an old and other-worldly atmosphere about the place, a far cry from the disruption of the modern world.

Wayland's Smithy is a chambered long barrow, built during the early Neolithic period.  Long barrow construction was widespread across Britain and Europe at this time, although Wayland's Smithy belongs to a regional variant of long barrow style, the Severn-Cotswold group, of which is is one of the best surviving examples.  The long barrow runs 55m in length, 14m wide, with a peristalith edging of slabs.

Entrance Wayland's smithy long barrow, with two of the four sarsen stones in full view

The tomb here actually forms two phases.  The first monument was made largely of wood with some stone, and was built between 3590 and 3550 BC, eventually housing a single crouched burial, with the further remains of 14 people scattered in front of this.  This tomb consisted of a paved stone floor with two large posts at either end, thought to support a timber facade.  There was then a period of disuse, during which time the structure was covered by an oval mound of chalk and earth, signalling the closure of the barrow.

After around 100 years of disuse (possibly as little as 50 years), a larger barrow was built directly on top of this structure using stone, and probably twice the size of the original, between 3460 and 3400 BC.  This is the structure that we see today.  This tomb contained two transept chambers and a terminal chamber, along with the long entrance chamber - forming a rough cross shape.  Today, the entrance is guarded by four sarsen stones (originally six), which were returned to their upright positions during archaeological excavation in 1962.  Within this later tomb, archaeologists uncovered the jumbled remains of seven adults and one child.

Entrance into the chamber area 

It is interesting that the transition from timber to stone at Wayland's Smithy took place over a relatively short period.  It's also worth noting that the burials in the second tomb were late in use, compared with burials elsewhere - the famous long barrow at West Kennet had seen burials in stone tombs of this style at least 200 years earlier.  I'm particularly interested in why the long barrow was re-opened after a period of closure, which must have spanned enough time for the use of the original to be outside living memory.  I would suggest that the site had a symbolism and significance that had been collectively remembered, a legend passed down the generations which kept ancestral ties to the site intact, and made Wayland's Smithy an important one in the culture, heritage and tradition of the people.

Finally, a note on the unusual name of this long barrow - the name of Wayland's Smithy appears to come from a Saxon Charter of AD 955, which refers to the site as "Weland's Smithy".  It is suggested that the site takes its name because it was once thought to have been the home of Wayland, the Saxon god of metal working.  There is also a local tradition stating that if you were to leave your horse tethered to the long barrow along with a small coin, an invisible elvin smith would magically re-shoe your horse while you were away.

Wider view of Wayland's Smithy