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The Ancient Settlements at Harlyn Bay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

O. G. S. Crawford
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Extract

Harlyn Bay is situated about the middle of the north coast of Cornwall, near Trevose Head, on the west of the estuary of the Camel, about four miles from Padstow. A number of discoveries of great archaeological importance have been made there and in the neighbouring bay of Constantine on the west; but so far no critical summary of the whole evidence in the light of recent knowledge has been attempted. The fullest account is that by the late Rev. R. Ashington Bullen (3rd edition, published at Harlyn Bay by Colonel Bellers in 1912). The site is one of considerable interest to the geologist as well as the archaeologist; and the scenery is very beautiful.

The discoveries will be described in the following order:

1. The cemetery and midden at Harlyn Bay.

2. The midden on Constantine Island and on the adjacent mainland.

3. The midden and medieval remains near Constantine Church.

4. The barrows on the cliffs between Harlyn Bay and Mother Ivey's Bay.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , October 1921 , pp. 283 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1921

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References

page 283 note 1 References in this article are to this guide-book when not otherwise specified.

page 284 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant., xxv, 189–92.

page 284 note 2 Evans, , Bronze, p. 367, fig. 451Google Scholar.

page 284 note 3 See Borlase, , Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 263Google Scholar.

page 285 note 1 Dr. Haddon also examined two skulls from Constantine Church and one from ‘Constantine’, presumably the island or adjacent midden on the mainland.

page 286 note 1 Harlyn Bay, pp. 52, 83, 84.

page 286 note 2 See Proc. Soc. Ant., xxxii, 93.

page 287 note 1 Harlyn Bay, p. 21, fig. 2.

page 287 note 2 Ibid. p. 84.

page 288 note 1 Harlyn Bay, p. 107.

page 288 note 2 Report of the British Association, 1864, p. 88Google Scholar.

page 288 note 3 Harlyn Bay, pp. 72–108.

page 289 note 1 Harlyn Bay, p. 99.

page 290 note 1 A fuller account is given in the Journ. Royal Inst. Cornwall, vol. x, 1890-1891, pp. 199–207 (pls. 4 and 5)Google Scholar.

page 290 note 2 The Journal distinctly says that the spindle-whorl was ‘picked up at the same place subsequently’.

page 292 note 1 Smith, R. A., Proc. Preh. Soc. E.-Anglia, vol. ii, pp. 407, 498 (fig. 111 b)Google Scholar.

page 292 note 2 See Hoare, Colt, Anct. Wilts, vol. i, pp. 39, 40Google Scholar.

page 294 note 1 It is curious that bronze axes and other bronze objects should often be mistaken for gold, but that real gold is regarded as brass! The Battle hoard (Sussex) was not recognized as gold by the finder.

page 295 note 1 In passing it may be observed that the use of these small ‘drift’ pebbles accounts for some of the so-called ‘pygmy’ flints elsewhere. These generally occur in a region where flint does not occur naturally in veins in the chalk, but only as derived pebbles. Thus, ‘pygmies’ are reported from near Iffley, Oxon. (Mr. J. Montgomerie Bell), and in the country to the north of Oxford. I found a very perfect diminutive scraper in a field near Coombe, Oxon., where a few stray unworked flints could also be picked up, doubtless brought there by glacial action.

page 296 note 1 Les Phéniciens et l'Odyssée.

page 297 note 1 Mr. Lamb writes: ‘There are many other mortars of Cataclews stone to be seen. There are several in the entrance of the [once] buried church of St. Enedoc, near Rock [on the east side of the Camel opposite Padstow].’ It appears, therefore, that the mortars are of medieval date.