Trethevy Quoit

The Trethevy Quoit, also known as The Giant 's House, is about 5500 year old dolmen from the Neolithic period. It is located in Cornwall in England. This Quoit well illustrates the specificity of the Cornish portal tombs.

Location

The Trethevy Quoit is located in the former Caradon District north of Liskeard in the village Tremar Coombe. It is close to The Hurlers, three stone circles dating from the late Bronze Age. In Cornwall you will find some other megalithic sites of this kind:

Construction

The Trethevy Quoit all appearances like other portal tombs of this type was after initially covered by a mound of earth. The encountered remains of fortifications suggest a diameter of 6.5 m. The remaining seven stones and the 3.7 m long and 10.5 -ton deck plate formerly located inside the plant. At the upper end of the cover plate is a natural hole, which was perhaps used for astronomical observation. The group of horizontal stones consists of an overturned back wall, two side wall blocks that overlap slightly, a front and a stone outlying flanking stone. The peculiarity of the Cornish portal tombs is that by such stones sometimes a small partially enclosed space is created and limited in front of the frontal statements. Some stones have hole-like perforations on as ornaments. The front stone is often called a stone entrance, although it can not be moved in most portal tombs. The Trevethy Quoit here is a rare exception, because a small rectangular movable stone at the bottom right of the front allows access to the grave chamber, which is now only very rarely opened. The rear of the chamber has collapsed inwards and now forms a bump on the inside of the chamber. Erected this stone has approximately the height of the front stone, so that once the cover plate was apparently not supported by the edge stones, but almost horizontally rested solely on stone front and rear walls. But then there would have been a significant gap between the support blocks and the side walls through which the earth into the grave chamber could penetrate. It is therefore likely that the collapse of the back wall falling down cover plate also damaged the edge stones. The interior is 2.0 m long and 1.5 m wide and measures now at the highest point yet 4.6m.

History of Research

The first mention of Trethevy Quoit 1584 by J. North in a topographical and historical account of Britain, but this was postponed until 1728. In the 19th century William Copeland Borlase employed again closer to the megalithic site and produced to the etchings depicted here. Are also his first conjectures about the fallen back wall and the earlier appearance of quoits. H. Hencken wrote in 1932 a first modern presentation, in which he explained the peculiarity of the pre-chamber and pointed out parallels to structures in Brittany. Recent excavations have shown that this type of megalithic sites in the Neolithic period between 3700-3500 BC have been built and have been used for a long time as a community graves.

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