Heatwave reveals ancient sites

Among dozens of sites revealed in Cornwall were an unusual prehistoric settlement surrounded by concentric ditches at Lansallos, and an iron age settlement surrounded by a circular ditch with marks of other circular and rectangular structures within one field at St Ive – evidence of continuity of settlement over at least 4,000 years.

Its layout is unusual, with concentric ditches with entrances connected by two parallel ditches. The inner ditch may have surrounded a settlement from the bronze or iron age. 

Lansallos was first recorded in 1302 as Lanselewys which translated from the Cornish means 'Selewys church enclosure'.

St Ive was recorded in 1201 as St Yvone after a male Saint Ivo or Ivon.

Over 3,500 "rounds", used between 500 BCE and 500CE, have now been found in Cornwall. These were enclosed farmsteads which presided over an established farm estate that, in many places have survived to the present day (certainly to the c.1840 Tithe Apportionment). Many place-names beginning with Ker- (usually as Car-) are given to farm estates that began with a round as its principal farm. The sheer number of them in Cornwall suggests a surprisingly high Iron Age population, perhaps as high as 100,000, or a fifth of today's population!

Kernow bys vyken!