Cornwall during the Iron Age and - Cornwall Archaeological Society

een occupied entirely within the Later Iron Age (Dudley, 1960; Schweiso, 1976). The plan
shows dense occupation with timber houses in the centre as well as around the perimeter.
The round at Trevisker, St Eval (ApSimon and Greenfield, 1972) was initially small,
enclosing c. 0.1 ha with a timber round house 13 m across. Material on the floor of this house
produced a radiocarbon date of 180 ± 90 bc (NPL —135). This phase was associated with
South-Western Decorated pottery but was replaced, within the Later Iron Age, by a far larger
enclosure of c. 1.2 ha and at least one large timber round house (Fig 2). Some occupation
at Trevisker continued until the 2nd century AD. Castle Gotha round, near St Austell, also
had a date range from the Later Iron Age until the 2nd, or possibly 3rd, century AD
(Saunders and Harris, 1982).
The Iron Age house plans so far recorded in Cornwall are circular, with an inner ring of
posts taking the main weight of the roof, and an outer wall of granite blocks, shale, turf or
timber depending on the locality. Stone-walled houses such as those at Bodrifty (Fig 2) are
identical in plan to those found in the local Bronze Age, while the size of the houses at
Trevisker is comparable with the largest found elsewhere in Southern Britain. Reconstruction
work by Reynolds on round houses of this size, using straw thatch, has shown in detail how
they might have looked (Reynolds, 1978; 1982).
The relationship of a round to a field system was demonstrated at Goldherring, Sancreed
(Guthrie, 1969). This round, built initially in the first century AD and containing smallish
round houses, was set in a block of small rectangular fields. Fieldwork and the study of air
photographs carried out since the late 1970s by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit (formerly
Cornwall Committee for Rescue Archaeology) show traces of field systems regularly
appearing around such sites, wherever conditions permit their survival (Johnson and Rose,
1982; Cornwall Committee for Rescue Archaeology Reports 1977 onward). The full implications
of this fieldwork, which is still continuing, have yet to be assessed. Fields indicate
arable farming. Evidence for specific cereal production is sparse, because no proper wet
sieving and analysis programme has yet been carried out. Hordeum spp. (barley), Avena spp.
(wild or cultivated oats) and Secale cereale (rye) were recorded at Goldherring (Guthrie,
1969, 38), Triticum dicoccum (emmer), T. spelta (spelt) and Avena sp. at Killibury
(Hillman, G. in Miles et al, 1977). Pollen analysis suggested arable farming around Cam
Euny, where traces of fields survive around the unenclosed settlement (Christie, 1978, 311,
426). Querns are found on all types of settlement site. Rotary querns were introduced into
Cornwall in the Later Iron Age, as in to the remainder of Britain (eg Trevisker, ApSimon
and Greenfield, 1972, 349) but .,addle querns continued to be used as well, and both types
are found throughout the Roman period. Detailed understanding of settlement patterns and
farming practices awaits further work on macroscopic plant remains and pollen analysis. It
must also depend on more detailed knowledge of the relationship of rounds and hillforts to
the unenclosed settlements, which remain elusive throughout the Iron Age. That at Cam Euny
was located because it underlay a later settlement of courtyard houses.
The variations in enclosed and fortified sites presented by Johnson and Rose (1982)
indicate complex social patterns varying through time. The rounds have been seen as the
settlements of landowning kindred groups (Fox, 1964, 125). Multiple enclosure hillforts
should represent an upper social stratum of chiefs. The extent of defences on some larger
sites indicates control of considerable man power. Cattle have been seen as the basis of wealth
for these chiefs, but sheep, better suited to South Western upland grazing, should also be considered
as an important local resource. Grazing for either implies considerable tracts of land
controlled from multiple enclosure hillforts. Another possibility would be areas of arable
worked by bondmen, a system foreshadowing the landholding system of Early Medieval
Wales. The occupants of rounds may have paid dues in kind or labour. It is probable that
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