Rights Holder: Royal Institution of Cornwall
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Unique ID: CORN-ED06E2
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Incomplete greisen cup-marked stone, sub-square in plan and profile and plano-convex in section. The convex face has three dimples that are 25 mm in diameter, in a circular arrangement, which run up to the broken edges on both sides, suggesting that there were more cup-marks on the missing piece. The underside of the stone has been damaged with two deep linear grooves in a cross formation that reveals the quartz beneath the weathered and soiled surface. These cup-marked decorated stones are generally dated from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age because they are sometimes associated with burial sites from these periods.
The greisen is metasomatically altered granite with prominent white mica inter-grown with quartz and was derived from a cobble, perhaps from the outcrop on Tregonning Hill in Breage, or a more local source. Greisen is a rock that was commonly used for querns and stone bowls (Dr Roger Taylor pers comm).
Jones and Taylor (2010) illustrate a saddle quern derived from a river cobble of muscovite granite with some tourmaline, with cup marks on the upper surface suggesting anvil use, from the Middle Bronze Age settlement at Scarcewater, St Stephens, illustrated in on page 128, Fig.65, No.260.
Walford (1994) illustrates a cup-marked stone, of altered greenstone, quartz fragments, decomposed brown augite and green hornblende, with hollows of similar diameters that were created by a metal tool on page 9, Fig.5. The stone was found near Callington and the suggested origin is Cornwall and the date, Early Bronze Age. It is also suggested that it may have been used as a small mortar as two hammer stones were found nearby (Walford, 1994, 12).
Nowakowski (1991) illustrates slates with similar sized cup marks from the Middle Bronze Age settlement of Trethellan on page 153, Fig.65, Nos.111-113, from ritual hollow 136/2021, ritual hollow 2765 and round house 2001.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: NEOLITHIC
Subperiod from: Late
Period from: NEOLITHIC
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: BRONZE AGE
Date from: Circa 2800 BC
Date to: Circa 1500 BC
Quantity: 1
Length: 200 mm
Height: 81 mm
Width: 170 mm
Weight: 2000 g
Date(s) of discovery: Friday 1st January 2010 - Tuesday 31st December 2013
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Other reference: L7
Primary material: Stone
Manufacture method: Ground/polished
Completeness: Incomplete
4 Figure: SW4027
Four figure Latitude: 50.08609416
Four figure longitude: -5.63604756
1:25K map: SW4027
1:10K map: SW47NW
Grid reference source: Generated from computer mapping software
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jones, A.M. and Taylor, S.R. | 2010 | Scarcewater, Pennance, Cornwall: Archaeological excavation of a Bronze Age and Roman Landscape | Oxford | Archaeopress | 128, Fig.65, | No.260 | |
Nowakowski, J. | 1991 | Trethellan Farm, Newquay: The excavation of a lowland Bronze Age settlement and Iron Age cemetery | Redruth | Cornwall Lithographic Printers Ltd. | 153, Fig.65, | Nos.111-113 | |
Walford, G.F. | 1994 | Prehistoric stone implements found near Callington, Cornwall and their significance | St Austell | Blackfords | 9 & 12, Fig.5 |