Cornwall during the Iron Age and - Cornwall Archaeological Society

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adequate for the establishment of a detailed local chronology, although those we have present a very different outline picture to that perceived 28 years ago, when Dudley (1958) wrote the previous review article. Sites not referenced in the present paper are detailed in that earlier review. The terminology employed to describe the Cornish Iron Age has altered considerably, and confusingly. The former ABC system was based on the concept of invasions triggering archaeological change, A deriving from the continental Hallstatt Iron Age, B from La Tem and C from Belgic groups, but this concept is no longer generally acceptable. In papers on Cornish material published up to around 1970 the ABC system was widely used, generally with a late chronology which radiocarbon dating now allows us to lengthen. As we cannot yet refer to a detailed local chronology, the Cornish Iron Age tends to be divided at present into an Earlier Iron Age, to around 400 BC, and a Later Iron Age, and this simple scheme will be used in this paper. In Britain, iron gradually replaced bronze for all the main metal necessities of life, for the tools of fighting and farming, during the 7th century BC. A date around 600 BC may therefore be appropriate for the beginning of the Cornish Iron Age. Few iron objects survive in the acid local soils and all belong to the Later Iron Age. Iron smelting on a comparatively extensive scale has been identified at Trevelgue, and it is possible that iron from the South West was reaching Danebury hillfort in Hampshire by the 6th century BC (Salter and Ehrenreich, 1984, 151 —2). Traditionally, changes in pottery and the introduction of hillforts havebeen used to identify the beginnings of a local Iron Age in which iron objects were sparse. Pottery of the Cornish Earlier Iron Age (formerly Iron Age A) is generally undecorated and includes a range of shouldered jars and bowls as at Bodrifty (Dudley, 1956) which are regarded as copies of metal vessels first introduced during Late Bronze Age II, in the 8th century BC (Pearce, 1983, 90). It seems reasonable to assume that the pottery copies started somewhere in Britain during the currency of the bronze forms. In Wessex where sufficient data exist for a detailed chonological ceramic sequence, it can be shown that some pottery formerly regarded as 'Iron Age' belongs to the closing stages of the Bronze Age (Cunliffe, 1983). In Cornwall, the range of sites producing Earlier Iron Age pottery has not been greatly increased in recent years. To the open hut-circle settlements at Bodrifty (Dudley, 1956) and at Garrow (Dudley, 1958, 48) have been added Sperris Croft and Wiccca Round in West Penwith (Dudley, 1958a), possibly Glendorgal, near Newquay (Dudley, 1962), and Kynance Gate (I. Thomas, 1960). Scatters of material on the north coast summarised by Dudley (1958) now include material from Gwithian (Thomas, 1964, Fig 21). Maen Castle and Trevelgue cliff castles remain the only fortified sites producing Earlier Iron Age pottery. In the present state of knowledge these sites may date anywhere between about 800 and 400 BC, before or after the introduction of iron. The term Earlier Iron Age, when applied to, or derived from, pottery in Cornwall, in fact means Late Bronze Age/Earlier Iron Age. This confusing situation will not be resolved until there are further sites with a radiocarbon based chronology. An added confusion for readers of local archaeological literature is the use in the 1950s and 1960s of the term 'Early Iron Age' for the whole of the pre-Roman Iron Age (eg Thomas, 1958, 15). The introduction of hillforts is now known to have occurred during the Later Bronze Age in some parts of the country, particularly in Wales (Harding, 1976). Some Cornish sites may belong to an early stage in the local hillfort sequence, but it is impossible to say whether this began in Cornwall before or after the advent of iron. Early sites might be sought among simple univallate structures in good defensive positions such as Cadsonbury, near Callington, or the stone walled, moorland enclosures, termed 'tor enclosures' by Silvester (1979, 188), such as Stowe's Pound, Minions, or Trencrom near St Ives. Recent examination of the 112
pottery from Trevelgue confirms the amount of Earlier Iron Age material present at this cliff castle and raises the possibility that the site may have been occupied from a date in the Late Bronze Age. The reasons for the scrappy evidence for the period 600-400 BC, the Cornish Earlier Iron Age, probably relate to two linked factors. Climatic and soil changes during the first millennium BC (Bell, 1984, 53) are thought to have caused major shifts in settlement patterns, although Bodmin Moor, at a lower altitude, may have been less affected than Dartmoor. If population levels were low and the main pattern of settlement was one of simple circular houses scattered among field systems in areas which do not today survive as moorland, sites will prove extremely difficult to detect. During the Later Iron Age new pottery forms were adopted. Vessels are smaller than preceding types and tend to be better made; the most common form is a necked jar, often decorated with a zone of incised geometric or curvilinear pattern on the shoulder. This pottery has long been related to ceramic trends among La Tene groups in northern France and appears in the Cornish literature either as 'South Western Third B' (from an elaboration by Hawkes (1960, 15) of his original ABC system) or as 'Glastonbury Ware' from its occurrence in large quantities on the so-called Somerset Lake Village. This pottery occurs throughout Cornwall and Devon and into Somerset as far north as Mendip, but is hardly found in Dorset. Dating has varied, but it was generally assigned to the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Recent excavations with radiocarbon dates have improved our understanding of its chronology and the term `(La Tene) South-Western Decorated' is now coming into use for it. Detailed study of the pottery excavated at Cam Euny 1964 —72 (Elsdon, 1978) has identified sherds with stamp decoration, probably related to material from 5th century Brittany (Schwappach, 1969, 272); similar sherds occur at Trevelgue. The similarity with the Breton material and an associated radiocarbon date of 420 ± 70 bc (HAR-238) at Cam Euny suggest a 5th, or possibly 4th, century date for these decorative beginnings. Avery (1972; 1973) has made a detailed study of South-Western Decorated pottery, based for Cornwall mainly on the excavations at Trevelgue and Castle Dore. Both at Cam Euny and at Castle Dore, there is material with rouletted decoration which appears to represent the next ceramic phase after the stamp-decorated sherds. Avery and Elsdon both place this rouletted pottery in the 3rd century BC, and the start of the much more common incised geometric and curvilinear decorated material in the second century. Excavations at Killibury hillfort, Egloshayle, in 1975-6 (Miles et al, 1977) produced a series of radiocarbon dates which suggested that South-Western Decorated pottery, including its curvilinear decoration, was fully developed by the 3rd century BC. The Killibury dates appear to be corroborated by a series from Meare, Somerset (Coles, 1981, 68). It would not be ureasonable to suggest that South-Western Decorated pottery was developing during the 4th century BC, relegating the sparsely occurring rouletted material to the (earlier?) 4th century BC. South-Western Decorated pottery occurs on a wide range of sites and in far greater quantities than all Earlier Iron Age styles, and a possible 4th century origin both explains its comparative frequency and allows an extended chronology for the sites concerned. For convenience, the period from c. 400 BC and the introduction of the decorated styles will be referred to as the Later Iron Age. This revision of chronology suggests a period of fairly rapid ceramic change in the 5th and 4th centuries BC and then a stable period, in which pottery was produced without detectable change, lasting until the 1st century BC. This stability may be associated with changes in production centres and distribution. Peacock (1968, 1969) demonstrated that virtually all South-Western Decorated pottery from Cornwall contains minerals derived from the gabbroic rocks of the St Keverne area of the 113
Page 1: CORNISH ARCHAEOLOGY No. 25 (1986) 5
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Page 13 and 14: whose ancestors had occupied hillfo
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Page 19 and 20: Exeter in the 3rd and 4th centuries
Page 21 and 22: The question of Late Bronze Age and
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