Sheet 3 the Bronze

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Goonhilly: a walk through history Linking the Lizard Countryside Partnership Sheet 3 THE BRONZE AGE Cruc Draenoc Barrow Overlooked by the imposing modern technology of the Earth Charlie Johns, Station satellite dishes sits Dry Tree Menhir. It may be small Senior compared to ‘Arthur’, but it dwarfs the Earth Station in terms of Archaeologist, its history: it dates back to the Early Bronze Age (about 2150 to Cornwall Council 1500 BC), when it sat at the centre of a ritual landscape of barrows built by the prehistoric settlers of the Downs. Goonhilly Dry Tree Menhir: soldiers’ efforts. The Cruc Draenoc menhir is made of There are no recorded barrow: Find yourself gabbro from the Crousa We don’t know what the Downs stone circles on The at the top of Cruc Downs, over two miles were called in the Bronze Age - Lizard, and Dry Tree Draenoc barrow [H], away: the journey to Menhir [H] is one of the near to Dry Tree Menhir, the name Dry Tree is more recent bring it to Goonhilly few standing stones. It is and you are standing on and is thought to refer to a wouldn’t have been thanks to Sir Courtenay the highest point of the quite as spectacular as gallows that may once have stood Vyvyan of Trelowarren Downs: on a good day that for Stonehenge, but near the menhir. There is, and Colonel Serecold of you can see as far as the still quite an effort. however, plenty of archaeological Rosuic that the menhir is St Austell granite standing at all. It was evidence left by the Bronze Age Dry Tree Menhir uplands. It has been toppled over on its side used in mapping by the people who lived at the edge of for hundreds of years, Ordnance Survey, and the Downs. until in 1916 some the triangulation point is soldiers started to break still there. it up to use in ? What is a barrow resurfacing a road. The Cruc Draenoc (meaning two gentlemen ‘thorny barrow’) is the Barrows date back to the Early Bronze fortunately stopped largest of three barrows Age, and were burial and/or them, and arranged to associated with the Dry ceremonial mounds. They took various have the menhir re- Tree menhir, and one of forms: Cruc Draenoc is a mound of erected - although it is a many barrows on turf, not a hollow structure, and is metre shorter than it was Goonhilly. covered by a layer of orange clay originally, thanks to the beneath the vegetation. Any burials there would have been cremations. What are standing stones for? We cannot be completely sure of their Who were the early Bronze Age purpose, but they were possibly people of Goonhilly? boundary or way markers. On Goonhilly, the presence of a number While there is much we cannot know, the archaeology of the Downs gives of barrows suggests a function within a us some insights. In Early Bronze Age Cornwall, people were beginning to ‘ceremonial’ landscape. move from a nomadic to a more settled lifestyle, building homes in the more fertile land surrounding the Downs and using the Downs themselves for summer grazing when they needed their more fertile pastures for growing crops. The Dry Tree Menhir and barrows across Goonhilly would probably have had a mixture of functions for these people, including for burials and ritual practices. http://www.the-lizard.org Numbers in square brackets refer to the walk directions.

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How to Tell a Cromlech from a Quoit ©
How to tell a cromlech from a quoit © As you might have guessed from the title, this article looks at different types of Neolithic or early Bronze Age megaliths and burial mounds, with particular reference to some well-known examples in the UK. It’s also a quick overview of some of the terms used when describing certain types of megaliths, standing stones and tombs. The definitions below serve to illustrate that there is little general agreement over what we could classify as burial mounds. Burial mounds, cairns, tumuli and barrows can all refer to man- made hills of earth or stone, are located globally and may include all types of standing stones. A barrow is a mound of earth that covers a burial. Sometimes, burials were dug into the original ground surface, but some are found placed in the mound itself. The term, barrow, can be used for British burial mounds of any period. However, round barrows can be dated to either the Early Bronze Age or the Saxon period before the conversion to Christianity, whereas long barrows are usually Neolithic in origin. So, what is a megalith? A megalith is a large stone structure or a group of standing stones - the term, megalith means great stone, from two Greek words, megas (meaning: great) and lithos (meaning: stone). However, the general meaning of megaliths includes any structure composed of large stones, which include tombs and circular standing structures. Such structures have been found in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North and South America and may have had religious significance. Megaliths tend to be put into two general categories, ie dolmens or menhirs.
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