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Chûn
Quoit
St Just |
Penwith
NGR: SW 4022 3395 |
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‘Quoit’ is the Cornish name for a type of megalithic structure
comprising a number of large stones set upright to support a massive
horizontal capstone forming a small chamber. Also knows as
cromlechs, the stone chambers thus formed were used for communal
burials in the Neolithic period. Chûn
Quoit is one of a small group of similar monuments restricted in
distribution largely to Penwith, though there are two or three
further east in Cornwall and they are also common in Wales, Ireland
and Brittany. Archaeologists call such sites chambered tombs or
portal dolmens, and date them to the 3rd or 4th millennia BC. The
quoit is surrounded by traces of a large low stony mound, but this
may never have been very high and the capstone at least was probably
always visible. The mound is ringed with a low kerb of relatively
small boulders and other stones visible in the top of the mound have
been interpreted as the remains of burial boxes or cists. There may
have been a ‘forecourt’ in front of the entrance to the chamber
which would have provided the setting for funerary rites and
rituals.
No artefacts or human remains have been found at Chûn
Quoit, and finds generally from these kinds of monuments are almost
unknown in Cornwall due to the acidity of the moorland soils.
Comparison with similar monuments elsewhere suggest that they
functioned as repositories for safeguarding ancestral remains. There
is some evidence - from Neolithic tombs in Wessex for example - that
bones were periodically removed and returned or re-arranged. The
bones may have featured in ceremonies associated with an ancestor
cult; communities at this time were becoming increasingly settled
and stable and such rites are thought to represent the attempt to
establish hereditary ‘ownership’ of a territory and to develop a
communal or tribal identity.
It has been noted that many of the quoits are situated in locations
with panoramic views often incorporating high hills, rivers or
coastal features. This again is taken to reflect the desire to
define or control a specific territory and to bring the community
into a closer relationship with it by signposting landscape features
which figured in communal histories or which enjoyed particular
mythical associations. Chûn Quoit is
(perhaps significantly) situated between Chûn
Downs to the east and Carn Kenidjack to the west and the ocean is
visible from the site to the north-west and south-west.
The continuing significance of the early ceremonial monuments over
long periods of time is exemplified in the construction of the
nearby Iron Age hillfort of
Chûn Castle,
whose main entrance faces west and was directly aligned on the quoit.
It is remarkable to recall that around four thousand years
separates the builders of these two monuments – twice as long as the
period by which we ourselves are separated in time from the people
who constructed the hillfort.
The monument stands in open ground and can be accessed via public
footpath leading from the main road past Chûn
Farm.
Sources
Gossip, J, 1999. Chûn Downs , Cornwall.
An Archaeological and Historical Assessment. Historic
Environment Service, Cornwall County Council. |
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Ground & Aerial photographs |
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