Bant's Carn is a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

entrance grave located on a steep slope on the island of St Mary's in the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The tomb is one of the best examples of a Scillonian entrance grave. Below Bant's Carn, lies the remains of the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

village of Halangy Down.

Description

Bant's Carn is situated on a steep slope on the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. Below the burial monument, lies the remains of the Iron Age village of Halangy Down. The tomb measures around in diameter and stands on a low platform across. The entrance is long and high, with no roof. It is separated from the burial chamber by a

jamb In architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and cons ...

. The chamber itself measures around in length and in width and height, with four large capstones serving as a roof. The carn is partially encircled by the remains of the platform, through which the passage leads indirectly to the chamber entrance.

History

The Isles of Scilly were originally settled during the

Neolithic era The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, circa 2500 BC. Burials on the islands range in date from the later Neolithic period to the Middle

(2500-1000 BC). Over eighty entrance graves have been discovered on the Isles of Scilly; The majority of graves were built in the middle Bronze Age (1500 to 1000 BC). Bant's Carn is an excellent example of a Scillonian entrance grave. Excavated entrance graves typically contain human remains, cremation urns, and pottery fragments. Ban%27t_Cairn_drawing

The tomb was excavated in 1900 by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, George Bonsor. Bonsor found the tomb empty except for cremated human remains at the back of the chamber, along with sherds of

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

pottery. Later restoration work in 1970, led by P. Ashbee, included re-setting the tomb's eastern capstone and southern portal stone. This work uncovered 140 decorated prehistoric pottery fragments from around the portal stone as well as two worked flints which were given to the Isles of Scily Museum in December 1976. Bonsor never published the results of his excavations on Scilly. In 1926 his friend and fellow archaeologist, Thomas Kendrick, then Assistant Keeper in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, visited Bonsor at his castle in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He discovered that Bonsor had kept his notes, drawings and finds from his excavations on Scilly. Kendrick convinced Bonsor to send several of the excavation finds to the British Museum. After Bonsor's death, his excavation plans and drawings were obtained for the museum. The plans played an important part in the restoration of Bant's Carn in 1970. The Bant's Carn site also includes remains of post-medieval

field systems The study of field systems (collections of fields) in landscape history is concerned with the size, shape and orientation of a number of fields. These are often adjacent, but may be separated by a later feature. Field systems by region Czech Repub ...

and other settlements. It, together with the nearby late Iron Age/Romano-British village of Halangy Down is now in the guardianship of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

. A military battery built in 1905 also stands nearby.

References

{{Isles of Scilly History of the Isles of Scilly Prehistoric sites in Cornwall Stone Age sites in Cornwall English Heritage sites in the Isles of Scilly St Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Description

History

See also

References