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| Wednesday, 15 October 2003 |
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Sites of England - 1 2000-year-old village by Lionel Wijesiri The west of Cornwall in England is rich in prehistory. Man and nature have combined to produce mysterious stone circles, standing stones, burial chambers and ancient villages. Chysauster is one such village.
They were believed to have been built by members of Dumnoni tribe of Cornish Britons using local hand-made pottery decorated with raised bands. The village appears to have been peacefully abandoned by the end of the Roman period and there is no trace of any later occupation. It has been excavated several times, the last being in mid 1930s.
The importance of the small fields and track-ways associated with early settlements has only be fully appreciated in recent years. The village is composed of eight houses, laid out in two rows of four. Outside the main grouping of houses is another stone house, and there are also few remains of several outlying buildings in the surrounding fields. House Plan Each house of the village has a main entrance, which faces away from the prevailing southwest wind. The passage through the thick outer walls leads into an open space, usually 25 - 30 ft. This space has traditionally been referred to as the "courtyard" since it was considered to have been unroofed. Evidence from excavation suggests that the courtyard may have been paved overall.
In some houses there is evidence of covered stone drains. A quern for grinding grain can also be seen as well as a collapsed "fougoo", or an underground tunnel. A fogou is a stone underground tunnel or chamber. Nobody knows what they were used for, though suggestions include food storage, cattle shelter, refuge against attackers and ritual use. Fogous are found all over Cornwall and were generally built at the edge of settlements In every room there has been found a stone with a hollow in it. This is believed to have provided the socket for a timber upright supporting the apex of a pyramidal roof. Another feature are the "Water Channels" lined and covered with stone slabs, which were found in the courtyards. These, which ran through the entrance, were apparently designed to bring water into the house and then to provide drainage out again under an opposite wall.
Outside every house there is a banked and levelled area, referred to "Garden Terrace". Garden plots are known from other courtyard house villages suggesting they were a feature of planned new towns. This general plan is repeated, with minor variations, in every house and suggests that each room had its own special use. Unfortunately the finds from within the houses were not enough to relate them to room use. Pottery The bulk of the material excavated from the houses consisted of pottery bulk of which is seen to belong to the second century AD. The inhabitants of Chysauster survived by farming and livestock raising. Evidence of field enclosures show where the herds were prevented from getting at food crops. The present boundary of the protected area does not enclose the whole of the courtyard settlement. Historians agree that there was once a veritable town on the hillside, of which the houses visible today are the last remnant. The protected village, undisturbed between the agricultural land and the moorland, has become a sanctuary for natural wildlife. A whole range of wildflowers and bird life can be seen in a vast area around the village. |
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Chysauster appears to have been constructed at the end of the
prehistoric period, that is later Iron Age, (about 100BC) and thought to
have continued in use during the Roman period up to 3 rd century AD.
Chysauster, in common with similar settlements, lies within an
extensive field system.
Left of the entrance, the courtyard in most cases curves out to form a
"bay" and this would have been comparatively easy to cover with
roof, forming a shelter to livestock. Opposite the entrance there is a
larger circular room - "the Round Room". On the right of the
entrance is a long narrow room, referred to as "Long Room" and
in some houses; there is also a small circular room known as "Small
Round Room".
These water channels in the courtyards may have related to the possible
use of the "bay" as an animal stall.
