Close to the Edge: Excavations of Five Cornish Coastal Barrows

A report of recent excavation of five Early Bronze Age barrows undertaken by Cornwall Archaeological Unit. All are complex monuments revealing episodes of remodelling and reuse. Despite being broadly comparable with similar radiocarbon determinations, there are major differences in both the form and intensity of activity between the barrows.

Close to the Edge reports upon the recent excavation of five Early Bronze Age barrows undertaken by Cornwall Archaeological Unit. Three of the five sites are located close to the coast and two are located in an elevated inland ridge with sea views. All are complex monuments which reveal episodes of remodelling and reuse, stretching from the first half of the second millennium BC into the Iron Age, with one site producing evidence for activity in the Roman period. A notable feature of the investigated barrows is the range of practices associated with them. Interestingly, only one of the barrows seems to have had a primary function as a place of burial, with others containing only token amounts of human bone, or none at all. Despite being broadly comparable monuments with similar radiocarbon determinations, there are also major differences in both the form and intensity of activity between the barrows, and there are significant contrasts in practices associated with them. The volume presents the results from each of the excavated barrows. A final synthetic section then reviews some of the major themes which have emerged from the excavations.