Bodrifty
Bodrifty is the modern name of an Iron Age village in Cornwall, the remains of which are to be found 700 yards west of Mulfra Hill on the Penwith moorland, three miles northwest of Penzance and a mile and a half southwest of Porthmeor. It is on the high ground of the nominal watershed between the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel,[1] to the extent that any distinction could be made this close to their merging.
Today the settlement is barely more than a farm within the boundary of the village of New Mill, just north of Boskednan.
History
Professor Tim Darvill dates Bodrifty as far back as the seventh century BC,[2] but James Dyer has claimed that Bodrifty began as an open settlement in the fourth century BC.[3]
During the Iron Age, Bodrifty was inhabited by peasants who lived in round huts and cultivated small fields in the area.[4] The settlement thrived between the fifth and second centuries BC, and a claim has even been made that Pytheas, the Greek geographer and explorer, visited Bodrifty on his travels in the 320s BC.[5]
Archaeology
The site is archaeologically significant in part because of the wide range of pottery shards discovered there.[6] It was excavated extensively in the early 1950s and most of the finds are in the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro.[1][7] An analysis of the styles of pottery suggests that Bodrifty was inhabited from the fifth century BC to the first or second century AD.[8] The settlement consisted of eight structures surrounded by a stone wall enclosing about three acres. The structures themselves had internal diameters of between three and eight metres.[9]
It is possible that the name means "the house by the summer shed" in Cornish.[10]
Replica roundhouse
In 1999 Fred Mustill, a local smallholder, built a reconstruction of a roundhouse at Bodrifty Farm after receiving a small grant. The task of building the replica required the shifting of granite rocks weighing several tons, felling, shaping and lashing hundreds of feet of timber, and hundreds of hours' work cutting reeds for the roof. Mustill had previously researched typical roundhouse architectural structure and surveyed other reconstructions in Cornwall. Traditional rab (granite sub soil) was used for the mortar and woods such as oak, ash, holly and hazel for the roof. Mustill was keen for the house to be showcased as an educational aid for local children and others interested in history and archaeology, and hoped it would become a registered charity,[11] though as of August 2011 it was being used for "luxury camping".[12]
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Maps
- Location map: 50°9’41"N, 5°34’35"W
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Thomas, Nicholas (1976). A Guide to Prehistoric England. Batsford. http://books.google.com/books?id=rOGBAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ↑ Darvill, Timothy C. (1 September 2009). Prehistoric Britain. Taylor & Francis. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-415-49027-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=0BX2zOPcfeAC&pg=PA272. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ↑ Dyer, James (2001). Discovering Prehistoric England. Osprey Publishing. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-7478-0507-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=fDTecByGtiYC&pg=PA25. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ↑ Fox, Aileen (1964). South west England. Thames and Hudson. http://books.google.com/books?id=afB5AAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ↑ Cunliffe, Barry W. (2001). The extraordinary voyage of Pytheas the Greek. Allen Lane. pp. 87–8. ISBN 978-0-7139-9509-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=NTZ_AAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ↑ Cunliffe, Barry W. (2005). Iron Age communities in Britain: an account of England, Scotland and Wales from the seventh century BC until the Roman conquest. Psychology Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-415-34779-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=3lkEgdtOvGEC&pg=PA281. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ↑ Archaeological news letter. 1951. http://books.google.com/books?id=Nf07AAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ↑ Cunliffe, Barry W. (April 2002). The extraordinary voyage of Pytheas the Greek. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-8027-1393-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=bYaBu_YtLgEC&pg=PA87. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ↑ Dyer, James (1997). Ancient Britain. Psychology Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-415-15151-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=dR6ZsMRxC-EC&pg=PA122. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ↑ A glossary of Cornish names, ancient and modern, local, family, personal, &c: 20,000 Celtic and other names, now or formerly in use in Cornwall. Williams & Nargate. 1871. p. 12. http://books.google.com/books?id=R2dMfjrYnQMC&pg=PA12. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ↑ "News". Bodrifty.co.uk. http://www.bodrifty.co.uk/PressRelease.htm. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ↑ Brown, Georgia (12 August 2011). "Travel - Staying in a replica Iron Age roundhouse". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/aug/12/cornwall-roundhouse-places-to-stay. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- Crofts, Christopher Benson (1954). A guide to the excavations at Bodrifty,Mulfra. West Cornwall Field Club. http://books.google.com/books?id=CMSoYgEACAAJ. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
