EARLY MAN 



rubbish, Mr. Blight found pottery (fragments of seventeen different vessels), 

 charcoal, bones of animals, bits of flint and pieces of iron, the largest of these 

 being part of an iron implement which had apparently one cutting edge and 

 was long-bladed. It was made with some skill and is described by Mr. Blight 

 as ' similar to the mediaeval glaive.' This cave also yielded a spindle whorl, 

 a granite mortar, and some stones evidently used for grinding. 



In 1863, Mr. W. C. Borlase completed the excavation of the cave at 

 Chapel Euny, which had been partly cleared by a miner some twenty years 

 before. He found in addition to a paved and drained floor, some coarse pottery 

 both black and red, a small piece of ' beautiful red pottery, possibly Samian 

 ware,' an iron crook, an iron spear-head 2J in. long, and numerous whetstones, 

 mullers, ashes, bones of animals, a small circular stone amulet, I in. in diameter, 

 with a hole through the centre and a considerable quantity of partly melted tin. 1 



The object for which these structures were made is quite conjectural. 

 The names do not help to any solution. Those at Boscaswell, 2 Bodinnar, 8 and 

 Trew * are each known as the ' Giant's Holt,' but most of the others are 

 simply called the ' Fogou ' or ' Vau,' which, with its other form of ' Hugo,' is 

 the Cornish word for a cave. Hal, writing of Trewoofe (Trove), says that ' in 

 the wars between Charles I and his Parliament, divers of the royal party, 

 pursued in the west by the Parliament troops under Sir Thomas Fairfax, 

 were privately conveyed into this vault .... where Mr. Leveale fed and 

 secured them till they found opportunity to make their escapes." It is 

 possible that some such purpose as this was the original cause of their 

 existence, for the caves at Chysauster, 6 Bodinnar, 7 Chapel Euny, 8 and 

 Roughtor ' are in the immediate vicinity of hut-circles or dwellings, and at 

 Altarnun 10 and Halligey " are traces of fortifications. This last was according 

 to Hal also the case at Trewoofe. 18 



The remains of the early dwellings in the county are of two marked 

 varieties. The rudest and apparently earliest are now to be noticed as low 

 circular banks of earth and stone, generally containing some large flat stones still 

 standing on edge ; the enclosed area is roughly level or slightly sunk. They are 

 usually found grouped together in large numbers. In Blisland such groups 

 are to be seen at Carwen, 13 on Kerrowe Down, 14 and on the west side of 

 Challowater. 15 Sir John Maclean speaks of them as existing at Garrah in 

 St. Breward ' by scores ' ; 16 there are numerous examples in Altarnun 17 on 

 Rowtor, on Scaddick hill, at Came Down, and Hendra. Mr. T. C. Peter 18 

 found traces of more than 100 on Cam Brea in Illogan ; there are several 

 inside the entrenchment of Castle Pencair on Tregoning Hill, in Breage ; 

 and a group of five at Colvadnack in Wendron. 19 Very few isolated instances 



1 See p. 368 supra. 



I Journ. Roy. Init. Corntv. (1864), No. ii, J. 3 Borlase, Antiq. 293. 

 ' Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1888), 360. 



6 Gilbert, Paroch. Hist, 143. ' Edmonds, op. cit. 51. 



7 Borlase, Antiq. 293. 



8 Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1862-5), 14. 



9 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1885), 252. 10 Ibid. (1888), 342. 

 " Ibid, viii, part iii (1885), 243. Arch. xl. 



II Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Sac. i, 249. 



13 Maclean, op. cit. i, 23 and plan. " Ibid. 24. " Ibid. 24. ' Ibid, i, 351. 



17 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. ix, pt. iii (1888), 349. festiges, 19 and plan. 



18 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. xiii, pt. i (1895), 93. 



19 Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1887-8), 349. 



I 369 47 



