Cornish Archaeol 34

Preliminary report on results from the first season of work at Leskernick Hill, Bodmin Moor, providing background to the Leskernick Project and details of the excavation of the terminal setting of a Late Neo--EBA stone row. There is an `Appendix: Leskernick stone row terminal: details of the site and excavated contexts' (70--3).

Discovered in 1983, this predominantly industrial RB settlement was the subject of a 1992 evaluation excavation. Radiocarbon dates and artefactual evidence indicated that it was also occupied in early medieval times. In the RB period the site appears to have been a specialist secondary metalworking area, involved in the casting of lead, pewter, and possibly also copper alloy objects. The unusual activity of extracting dye from dog whelks apparently also took place. A human jawbone may indicate contemporary graves in the vicinity. There is a major assemblage of South Devon ware pottery. Metalworking ceased in the early medieval period, and although the site continued to be industrial in character, the exact nature of activity is unknown. There are specialist reports on: `The pottery' by Henrietta Quinnell (120--9); `Coins' by John Davies (129--30); `Iron objects' (130--2) and `Copper alloy objects' (132--4) both by Henrietta Quinnell; `Stone' by Henrietta Quinnell & Roger Taylor (134--5); `Flint' by Henrietta Quinnell (135--6); `Human bone' by Steven Strongman (136); `Animal bone' by Adrienne Powell & Dale Sarjeantson (136--42); `Marine molluscs' by Janice Light (142--52); `Land molluscs' by Mark Robinson (152--5); `Plant macrofossils' by Vanessa Straker (155--8); `Charcoal' by Rowena Gale (158); `Soils' by Matthew Canti (159); `Technological evidence' by Catherine Mortimer (159--62) including an appendix (162) on material received after completion of the main report; and `Radiocarbon dates' by Alex Bayliss (162--5); Finally, there is an `Appendix: details of the site archive' (170--1).

Reports a previously unidentified bi-vallate earthwork fortification, now partly destroyed. Literary, place-name, and physical evidence combine to suggest a large fortified site, probably of IA origin, attributed in the later Middle Ages to the legendary King Teudar.

Reports recent work (see also 92/571 & 93/489).

Brief note on sites involved.