Pawton Quoit is a prehistoric

portal dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were somet ...

, which dates to the Early and Middle

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

period in England (3500–2600 BC). The burial monument is located near Haycrock Farm, south of

St Breock St Breock ( kw, Nanssans) is a village and a civil parish in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The spelling St Breoke was also formerly in use. Geography St Breock village is 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Wadebridge immediately to the sou ...

, in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Description

Pawton Quoit is a Neolithic burial tomb located about south from St Breock in a field near Haycrock Farm in Cornwall, England.John Barnatt (1982) ''Prehistoric Cornwall: The ceremonial monuments,'' page 128. Turnstone Press. It sits on a north-facing ridge, looking out over the a tributary to the

River Camel The River Camel ( kw, Dowr Kammel, meaning ''crooked river'') is a river in Cornwall, England. It rises on the edge of Bodmin Moor and with its tributaries its catchment area covers much of North Cornwall. The river flows into the eastern Cel ...

. The burial monument consists of a long

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

, measuring , and oriented north-south. The barrow was probably originally round, with a lengthening of one axis due to the downhill slope to the north. It has a damaged burial chamber at the south end of the mound. Large stones enclose the rectangular chamber, measuring . An enormous

capstone CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a lunar orbiter that will test and verify the calculated orbital stability planned for the Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12- ...

lies across the chamber, sitting on top on three support stones. Part of the capstone has broken off.

History

A portal dolmen is a closed, single-chamber burial tomb which dates to the Early and Middle Neolithic period in England (3500–2600 BC). It is constructed with two or more vertical

megaliths A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

, which are covered by an enormous, flat horizontal

. Several portal domens are surrounded by low cairns or platforms. Excavated sites have uncovered cremated human remains, charcoal and pottery fragments. Twenty portal domens have been identified in Britain, the majority of them located in

and several have been identified in Oxfordshire. Pawton Quoit was first mentioned in historical records when it was recorded as the "Druid's Altar" on the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...

map in 1813.

References

{{reflist Dolmens in Cornwall Archaeological sites in Cornwall