Re: Trevethy Quoit | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

fauny fergus wrote:

Hey man, I'm only the messenger. His argument was that the front chamber (by his reckoning) is the space that would have been enclosed by the fallen/leaning stone and would have been accessible from the rear chamber that was formed by a sliding stone (presumably lost to antiquity) or maybe wooden access door. There's a description of it here: http://www.megalithics.com/england/trevethy/trevmain.htm that mentions the 'antechamber'.

Or, from http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/sites/trethevy_quoit.htm :

Cornwall Guide wrote:

Erected in the early Neolithic period (c3500BC), and originally partially covered by a mound, Trethevy Quoit is unusual because not only does it have 6 supporting stones forming its internal chamber, but it was also constructed with an antechamber (although only one of the two original stones still remains). The only other Cornish quoit to boast two chambers is Lanyon Quoit.

The first link you quote is actually to our own website, Megalithics.com, nowhere on that page do we describe Trevethy as having two chambers, what we DO describe is how the falling of the backstone has partitioned the chamber.

The chap's argument that the front chamber is the space beneath the backstone and the rear that below it, just does not wash. Firstly, there is no communication between the two spaces (see photos and VR panoramas on our website) so the sliding door access he describes is impossible, secondly, after the fall of the backstone the space above it would have either been filled with infalling cairn material, or would have been open to the elements (depending on whether Trevethy had a cairn or not, opinion is divided). In either case, it could not be considered a functional chamber.

The second bit from the Cornish Guide is just plain wrong. Cornish variant portal tombs have flanking stones either side of the "portal" stone, these are sometimes set so as to partially enclose an area in front of the portal stone. Trevethy is a well-preserved example of this arrangement, the Zennor Quoit is another, the Lanyon Quoit has been so badly disturbed that the original structure of the chamber is unknown, there are no traces of flanking stones or an antechamber.

For a good reasonably recent account of Cornish portal tombs, we recommend Barnatt's excellent "Prehistoric Cornwall - The Ceremonial Monuments" there are detailed plans of the chambers of all the tombs mentioned above on page 44.

Maggie & Keith