the past in the past: the reuse of ancient monuments || ruined buildings, ruined stones: enclosures,...

Ruined Buildings, Ruined Stones: Enclosures, Tombs and Natural Places in the Neolithic ofSouth-West EnglandAuthor(s): Richard BradleySource: World Archaeology, Vol. 30, No. 1, The Past in the Past: The Reuse of AncientMonuments (Jun., 1998), pp. 13-22Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/125006 .

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Ruined buildings, ruined stones: enclosures, tombs and natural places in the Neolithic of south-west England

Richard Bradley

Abstract

There seems to be a consistent relationship between the forms taken by rock outcrops in south-west England and those of megalithic tombs. Such tombs are sometimes found close to walled enclosures which incorporate a number of these natural formations. At first sight it seems as if the tombs were built to imitate these distinctive features of the landscape, but there are problems with this interpretation, for megalithic tombs took a similar form in areas with a quite different topography. Perhaps the very distinction between buildings and natural features is inappropriate in studying societies which lacked a modern understanding of geology. It seems possible that certain rock outcrops were identified as ruined tombs or the remains of other buildings surviving from the ancestral past. They were incorporated into newer structures as they provided a source of social power.

Keywords

Neolithic; tombs; enclosures; ancestors; landscape; geology.

Introduction

The title of this paper was suggested by Hugh MacDiarmid's poem, 'On a raised beach'. That poem is a meditation on time and its opening section employs the language of geology. At one point MacDiarmid makes a striking assertion: there are many ruined buildings in the world, he says, but there are no ruined stones. Natural features are quite distinct from the creations of human culture.

A similar distinction can be found in a recent paper published in this journal - Christo- pher Tilley's article, 'The power of rocks' (Tilley 1996). This discusses the way in which some of the striking granite formations on Bodmin Moor in south-west England were used by prehistoric people. He follows the history of these places from the Mesolithic period.

World Archaeology Vol. 30(1): 13-22 The Past in the Past ? Routledge 1998 0043-8243



14 Richard Bradley

k Stowe's Poundd Trethevy Quoit ?

esquite Quoit* Helman Tor * f

4z I

| Z;KI am Breag

0ChuQoi 302

metrskilometres

_~~~~~~~a Brea

0C_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~10

Figure 1 The locations of Neolithic monuments in Cornwall considered in the text, with outline plans of the megalithic tomb at Chun Quoit and the enclosure complex at Carn Brea. Drawing: Mar- garet Mathews.



Ruined buildings, ruined stones: the Neolithic of SW England 15

At the start of this sequence, 'the distinctive rock outcrops known as "tors" were, in effect, non-domesticated "megaliths", sculpted by the elements and imbued with cultural significance' (ibid.: 165). In the Neolithic period, some of them were incorporated into stone- walled enclosures. From then on, they played an increasingly obvious role in the ways in which the landscape was organized.

This argument has a wider relevance in the prehistory of Cornwall, south-west England, and very similar phenomena can be observed on the granite outcrops in other parts of this region (Fig. 1). There are further walled enclosures attributed to the Neolithic period (Mercer 1986a: 50-2), but there are also tombs which bear a strong resemblance to the tors in the same area (ibid.: 54-61). Perhaps these links can be understood in terms of Tilley's thesis.

Tors, tombs

The tors are massive stacks of granite, often divided into slabs and blocks by exposure to the weather (Plates 1-4). These separate components seem to be piled on one another like massive but ineffective walling, and frequently one or more huge slabs are perched precariously on the summit. There are voids within the structure of these tors, picked out by the way in which light percolates through gaps in the rock (Edmonds, McKeown and Williams 1985).

These structures also provide the raw material for a series of megalithic tombs, known locally as 'quoits' (Barnatt 1982: ch. 2; Mercer 1986a: 54-61). They consist of closed boxes, standing above ground. Their main characteristic is a massive capstone, supported on less substantial uprights. That capstone may be horizontal or it may slope downwards from the front to the back of the chamber. In each case it extends beyond the area enclosed by those slabs (Plates 5-8). It seems likely that these structures belong to the same period as the tor enclosures and that the chambers were never covered by a cairn.

There are two ways in which they resemble the natural tors. Their structure is relatively permeable, and there are gaps between the individual uprights which form their walls. The capstone is disproportionately large and closely resembles the eroded slabs found on top of the tors. Like those natural features, it often projects some way beyond the stones on which it rests.

The tombs are generally found near to walled enclosures of the type discussed in Tilley's article, and in some cases the two groups of monuments are intervisible. These enclosures contain natural features which are strikingly similar to the megalithic tombs. This is particularly true at two sites, Carn Brea and Helman Tor, whose Neolithic date has been established by excavation (Mercer 1981; Mercer 1986 b; Plates 9 and 10). It also applies to Stowe's Pound, a rather similar enclosure studied by Tilley (Johnston and Rose 1994: 46-8; Tilley 1996: 167-8; Plates 11 and 12). All three sites are particularly interesting because there are megaliths nearby. These enclosures surround a number of granite outcrops which resemble chambered tombs. Others are incorporated in the perimeter wall. A good example is found close to the western summit at Carn Brea (Plate 9).

There is no doubt that Tilley is right to insist on the role of these impressive land forms.



16 Richard Bradley

Plate 1 A natural rock formation on the Neolithic site at Helman Tor.

Plate 2 The summit of a granite tor inside the walled enclosure at Stowe's Pound.

:,ZERO ~~~~~~~~Plate 3 A granite tor inside lw - . the walled enclosure at Stowe's

_ - i L ~~~~~~~~Pound.

Plate 4 A granite outcrop on the Neolithic site at Helman Tor.




Plate 5 Side view of the megalithic tomb of Chun

- Quoit.

Plate 6 A more distant view of the megalithic tomb of Chun Quoit.

Plate 7 The collapsed megalithic tomb of Mulfra Quoit.

Plate 8 The megalithic tomb _P -< > @7<ri^ of Trethevy Quoit.



18 Richard Bradley

Plate 9 A natural rock formation incorporated into one of the enclosure walls at Carn Brea.

Plate 10 A natural rock formation at the site of the

I f Neolithic enclosure of Helman

_ _9

It seems as if places with a long-established significance were taken over for the construction of ceremonial monuments. By doing so, people could have exploited their associations and exercised control over who was able to visit them. The same argument would explain why megalithic tombs could be built to look like these features. By making this connection, the local population associated the tors, whose importance extended into the past, with the tombs that they constructed for their dead.

Not only did the megaliths resemble the natural tors in the same areas, they were obvi- ously constructed out of raw material that could be obtained from outcrops of this kind. Local folklore acknowledges this connection. The chambered tomb of Lesquite Quoit (Miles and Trudgian 1976) is located only 1.5km from the enclosure at Helman Tor which contains a number of natural features of rather similar form; indeed, the two monuments




Plate 11 A natural rock formation built into the enclos-

- -_ ure wall at Stowe's Pound.

Plate 12 A natural rock for- _ mation built into the enclos-

ure wall at Stowe's Pound.

can be seen from one another. Local legend tells that the tomb was built by the devil throwing rocks from the tor (Barnatt 1982: 136).

Architecture, geology

So far my argument is consistent with Tilley's interpretation. Now I would like to suggest a different way of viewing these connections.

The megalithic tombs of south-west England belong to a class of monuments whose distribution extends around both shores of the Irish Sea (Lynch 1969; Powell 1973: 30-8; Herity and Eogan 1977: 85-93). Although there can be local variations within this group, they possess an essential architectural unity. They are chiefly characterized by their simple structure and by the presence of a massive capstone. The chambers do not appear to have been buried beneath cairns; they were intended to be seen. These monuments have become known as 'portal tombs' or 'portal dolmens' and most probably belong to the earlier Neolithic period. This would make them contemporary with the tor enclosures.

This introduces a new kind of problem. Although a number of these tombs occur in areas with granite outcrops, there are other examples where this is not the case. It follows that the entire body of monuments cannot have been built to imitate local land forms, even if this happened in south-west England. If the Cornish tombs were inspired by the character of the local geology, we would have to argue that this kind of architecture was



20 Richard Bradley

invented there before its adoption in other regions. This does not seem likely, especially as the monuments in Cornwall include some structural details that do not occur anywhere else. It is more reasonable to see these sites as the local manifestation of a wider structural tradition. Does this mean that their links with the natural landscape must be dis- counted after all?

At this point I would like to return to an observation made at the beginning of this paper. We find it relatively easy to distinguish between human constructions and geological formations, but it has not always been possible to do so. As recently as the late eighteenth century one of the granite tors in Cornwall was interpreted by respectable scholars as a megalithic monument (Evans 1994). That is not so surprising when we con- sider that geology emerged as a discipline little more than 300 years ago (Bowler 1992). The nature and origin of granite were much discussed during the eighteenth century, but before that time no satisfactory procedures existed for distinguishing between geological formations and antiquities in the countryside.

It follows that the distinctions that are so familiar to modern archaeologists might have had no meaning for prehistoric people. It is not simply a question of imputing special significance to geological phenomena, or of associating distinctive elements of the landscape with the activities of mythical beings. It may come down to an inability to distinguish the remains of buildings from natural rock formations.

I have already argued that the first megalithic tombs in south-west England resemble the granite tors found in the same areas. We could invert that argument by saying that, for the people who lived there in the Neolithic, some of those rock formations would have looked like megalithic tombs. Unless the tradition of building portal dolmens originated in that area (or in another region with conspicuous granite outcrops), it seems possible that the Neolithic population interpreted the local landscape according to their understanding of tomb architecture. In that sense, some of the tors could have been construed as the remains of above ground chambers, built according to a tradition that still retained its importance. Those ruined 'tombs' might be extravagant structures, but they were a link with the ancestral past.

There is one difference between this approach and that suggested by Tilley. In his interpretation, the granite tors of south-west England attracted attention because of the ways in which they dominated the landscape; it would not be at all surprising if such striking natural formations were imbued with special powers. The process of enclosing those tors harnessed some of those powers and might ultimately have provided a means of social control. The alternative interpretation is that some of these geological formations were so reminiscent of the tombs built around the Irish Sea that they were actually interpreted as ancient buildings. As a result, newly constructed tombs emphasized those links. Some of the main concentrations of 'ruined tombs' were incorporated into the walled enclosures which dominated the lives of the local population.

Those enclosures may also make more sense if they are understood as ancestral monuments, cared for and embellished by later generations. That may explain why, for instance, the enclosure on the western summit of Carn Brea surrounds a concentration of rock outcrops which provide virtually no living space, or why the southern approach to Helman Tor incorporates a rock formation that looks like a massive wall (Plate 10). Perhaps these




were perceived as the ancient monuments of the Neolithic period: the work of the ancestors themselves.

Conclusion

Christopher Tilley's account of Bodmin Moor makes many observations which seem entirely convincing on the ground, and he is not alone in highlighting the significance of natural places in the study of the ancient landscape. There are other regions in which such features would have played a crucial role in human perceptions of the world. But this paper has identified a problem. Our very concept of what is 'natural' and what is 'cultural' in those landscapes is a product of quite recent research in the discipline that has become known as geology. Before that developed, it must have been much more difficult to identify human constructions in the wider terrain. What is true of rock outcrops must have been true of other features, such as mounds. All of these may have been seen as the works of earlier generations and their successors may have felt a responsibility to look after those places, to harness their power or even to transform them into something else. It is easy for archaeologists to suggest that the past was a critical resource, but there are times when it is not so obvious how its remains would have been identified. As well as ruined buildings, there were many ruined stones.

Department of Archaeology Reading University

References

Barnatt, J. 1982. Prehistoric Cornwall. The Ceremonial Monuments. Wellingborough: Turnstone Press. Bowler, P. J. 1992. History of the Environmental Sciences. London: Fontana. Edmonds, E. A., McKeown, M. C. and Williams, M. 1985. British Regional Geology: South-West England. London: HMSO. Evans, C. 1994. Natural wonders and national monuments: a meditation upon the fate of The Tolmen. Antiquity, 68: 200-8. Herity, M. and Eogan, G. 1977. Ireland in Prehistory. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Johnston, N. and Rose, P. 1994. Bodmin Moor: An Archaeological Survey, Vol. 1. London: English Heritage. Lynch, F. 1969. The megalithic tombs of North Wales. In Megalithic Enquiries (ed. T.G.E. Powell). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 107-48. Mercer, R. 1981. Excavations at Carn Brea, Illogan, Cornwall. Cornish Archaeology, 20: 1-204. Mercer, R. 1986a. The Neolithic in Cornwall. Cornish Archaeology, 25: 35-80. Mercer, R. 1986b. Excavations on a Neolithic enclosure at Helman Tor, Lanivet, Cornwall. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Department of Archaeology.



22 Richard Bradley

Miles, H. and Trudgian, P. 1976. An excavation at Lesquite Quoit, Lanivet. Cornish Archaeology, 15: 7-10.

Powell, T.G.E. 1973. Excavation of a megalithic chambered cairn at Dyffryn Ardudwy, Merioneth, Wales. Archaeologia, 104: 1-49.

Tilley, C. 1996. The power of rocks: topography and monument construction on Bodmin Moor. World Archaeology, 28: 161-76.



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