Cornwall Archaeological Society

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Cornwall Archaeological Society
Formation1961;61 years ago (1961)
TypeArchaeology
PurposeStudy of archaeology in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Headquarters Cornwall
Location
Official language
English
Website cornisharchaeology.org.uk

Cornwall Archaeological Society is an amateur archaeological society based in Cornwall, United Kingdom for the study of archaeology in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. It was founded in 1961 by members of the West Cornwall Field Club. [1]

Contents

History

West Cornwall Field Club

The West Cornwall Field Club was founded by Lt Col F. C. Hirst and six of the volunteers who were excavating a site at Porthmeor, in the parish of Zennor from 1933 to 1935. [2] Membership increased to nineteen in 1937 and averaged fifty in the 1950s. Between 1953 and 1961 the club produced twenty-seven publications including six field guides and an annual journal, and the club members took part in forty excavations. During the fifties many members lived in mid and east Cornwall and the field club was publishing increasingly more articles from those areas. It was felt that the name no longer relevant to the scope of the field club and at the annual general meeting on 10 August 1961 it was unanimously approved to change the title to Cornwall Archaeological Society. [3]

Cornwall Archaeological Society

The first President of the society was C. A. Ralegh Radford an archaeologist and historian from Devon who specialised in the Dark Ages. [3]

Excavations

The Society has organised a number of excavations. One, considered to be outstanding was at Carn Brea led by Roger Mercer from 1970 to 1973, which established a new class of site — the Early Neolithic tor enclosure. [4]

Publications

The Society publishes a journal Cornish Archaeology Hendhyscans Kernow in most years. The first was published in 1962 and the latest, number 54, was published in 2015. A newsletter is published three times a year. [7]

List of presidents

The following have served as presidents of the society since its foundation in 1961.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodmin Moor</span> Granite moorland in northeast Cornwall, England

Bodmin Moor is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England. It is 208 square kilometres (80 sq mi) in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a slightly lower peak. Many of Cornwall's rivers have their sources here. It has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic era, when primitive farmers started clearing trees and farming the land. They left their megalithic monuments, hut circles and cairns, and the Bronze Age culture that followed left further cairns, and more stone circles and stone rows. By medieval and modern times, nearly all the forest was gone and livestock rearing predominated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fogou</span> Ancient dry-stone underground structures in Cornwall

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carn Euny</span> Archaeological site near Sancreed, Cornwall

Carn Euny is an archaeological site near Sancreed, on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom with considerable evidence of both Iron Age and post-Iron Age settlement. Excavations on this site have shown that there was activity at Carn Euny as early as the Neolithic period. There is evidence that shows that the first timber huts there were built about 200 BC, but by the 1st century BC, these had been replaced by stone huts. The remains of these stone huts are still visible today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Causewayed enclosure</span> Prehistoric earthwork

A causewayed enclosure is a type of large prehistoric earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe. It is an enclosure marked out by ditches and banks, with a number of causeways crossing the ditches. More than 100 examples are recorded in France and 70 in England, while further sites are known in Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Slovakia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durrington Walls</span> Late Neolithic palisaded enclosure

Durrington Walls is the site of a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in England. It lies 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury in Wiltshire. The henge is the second-largest Late Neolithic palisaded enclosure known in the United Kingdom, after Hindwell in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carn Brea, Redruth</span> Place

Carn Brea is a civil parish and hilltop site in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The population of Carn Brea including Bosleake and Church Coombe was 8,013 at the 2011 census. The hilltop site is situated approximately one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Redruth. The settlements of Bosleake, Brea, Broad Lane, Carn Arthen, Carn Brea Village, Carnkie, Four Lanes, Grillis, Illogan Highway, Pencoys, Penhallick, Piece, Pool, Tolskithy, Tregajorran, Treskillard, Tuckingmill and West Tolgus are in the parish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tor enclosure</span> Type of prehistoric monument found in southwestern Great Britain

A tor enclosure is a prehistoric monument found in the southwestern part of Great Britain. These monuments emerged around 4000 BCE in the early Neolithic.

Roger James Mercer was a British archaeologist whose work concentrated on the Neolithic and Bronze Age of the British Isles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enclosure (archaeology)</span> Archaeological feature

In archaeology, an enclosure is one of the most common types of archaeological site – It is any area of land separated from surrounding land by earthworks, walls or fencing. Such a simple feature is found all over the world and during almost all archaeological periods. They may be few metres across or be large enough to encompass whole cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illogan</span> Human settlement in England

Illogan is a village and civil parish in west Cornwall, UK, two miles (3 km) northwest of Redruth. The population of Illogan was 5,404 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also includes Carn Brea, Illogan and several satellite villages, stood at 55,400 making it the largest conurbation in Cornwall. Originally a rural area supporting itself by farming and agriculture, Illogan shared in the general leap into prosperity brought about by the mining boom, which was experienced by the whole Camborne-Redruth area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapel Carn Brea</span> Granite outcrop in west Cornwall, England

Chapel Carn Brea is an elevated Hercynian granite outcrop, owned by the National Trust at the southern edge of the civil parish of St Just, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The hill is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of St Just and 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) east of Sennen Cove, and just to the north of the A30 London to Land's End road, which runs through the village of Crows-an-Wra. It should not be confused with another Carn Brea, the hill overlooking the Camborne–Redruth area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pool, Cornwall</span> Village in west Cornwall, England

Pool is a village in Carn Brea civil parish in west Cornwall, England. It is bypassed by the A30, on the A3047 between Camborne and Redruth, between Tuckingmill and Illogan Highway.

Antony Charles Thomas, was a British historian and archaeologist who was Professor of Cornish Studies at Exeter University, and the first Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies, from 1971 until his retirement in 1991. He was recognised as a Bard of the Cornish Gorseth with the name Gwas Godhyan in 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marden Henge</span> Neolithic henge monument

Marden Henge is the largest Neolithic henge enclosure discovered to date in the United Kingdom. The monument is northeast of the village of Marden, Wiltshire, within the Vale of Pewsey and between the World Heritage Sites of Avebury and Stonehenge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stannon stone circle</span> Stone circle on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, England

Stannon stone circle is a stone circle located near St. Breward on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England.

Church Coombe is a hamlet in the parish of Redruth, Cornwall, England. Church Combe is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south-west of Redruth and lies in the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape which was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2006. It is in the civil parish of Carn Brea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helman Tor</span>

Helman Tor is a tor in mid Cornwall, England, UK. It is a nature reserve managed by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. It is a County Geology Site and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It lies on the Saints' Way. It is adjacent to Red Moor Site of Special Scientific Interest and Breney Common Special Area of Conservation.

Alan Saville was a British archaeologist and museum curator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornish Bronze Age</span> Period of Cornish history from c. 2400 until c. 800 BCE

The Cornish Bronze Age is an era of the history of Cornwall that spanned the period from c. 2400 BCE to c. 800 BCE. It was preceded by the Cornish Neolithic, and followed by the Cornish Iron Age. It is characterized by the introduction and widespread use of copper and copper-alloy (bronze) weapons and tools.

References

  1. "History". Cornwall Archaeological Society. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  2. "Porthmeor". Pastscape. Historic England. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 Thomas, A. C. (22 October 2015). "Editorial". Cornish Archaeology. 1: 1–4. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  4. "Carn Brea, Early Neolithic tor enclosure, c. 3700 BC". Royal Archaeology Society. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  5. Thomas, Charles (1963). "The Society's Excavations: Interim report" (PDF). Cornish Archaeology. 2: 47–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  6. "Castilly - Henge in England in Cornwall". The Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  7. "Newsletter". Cornwall Archaeological Society. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  8. Cornwall archaeological Society Newsletter (PDF), February 2019