Prehistoric round cairn 435m north of Furswain Farm

Reasons for Designation

Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time. Round cairns are funerary monuments covering single or multiple burials and dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They were constructed as mounds of earth and stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter but usually considerably smaller; a kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds the edges of the mound. Burials were placed in small pits, or on occasion within a box-like structure of stone slabs called a cist, let into the old ground surface or dug into the body of the cairn. Round cairns can occur as isolated monuments, in small groups or in larger cemeteries. Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provides important information on the diversity of beliefs, burial practices and social organisation in the Bronze Age. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of preservation.

This round cairn on Furswain Farm has survived well. Despite the limited and well-defined disturbance from the antiquarian excavation, the cairn's mound, internal deposits and buried land surface will survive substantially intact. The recent dumping of boulders on top of the mound has not affected its sub- surface deposits. The proximity of the cairn to the other cairns, including a platform cairn, on the summit of this hill demonstrates well the nature and diversity of funerary practices during the Bronze Age.

Details

The monument includes a prehistoric round funerary cairn situated near two other broadly contemporary cairns on the summit of a small hill east of the River Fowey valley on south-east Bodmin Moor. The round cairn is visible as a turf-covered circular mound of earth and heaped rubble, 12m in diameter and 1.2m high. An unrecorded antiquarian excavation has produced a shallow hollow, up to 1.5m wide and 0.4m deep, running east-west across the mound, passing north of the cairn's centre; a small mound of spoil from that excavation is located 1m beyond the cairn's north-west edge and measures 4m NE-SW by 2m wide and 0.1m high. Much of the top of the cairn's mound is overlain by a quantity of boulders, several over 1m across, which have been dumped there after recent stone clearance and hedge-removal in the vicinity. This cairn is centred 60m ENE of another round cairn and 68m north of a platform cairn, together forming a loose grouping about the hill's summit.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

15235

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Trahair, J E R, Cornish Archaeology in A survey of cairns on Bodmin Moor, Vol. 17, (1978)

Other
AM7 scheduling documentation for CO 624, 1964,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1239.2,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./CAU/RCHME, 1:2500 AP plot and field trace for SX 2271,

End of official list entry

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