The Archaeology of the A30 Bodmin to Indian Queens Road Scheme

Between July and December 2005, prior to the construction of the A30 Bodmin to Indian Queens road improvement scheme, an extensive programme of archaeological investigations was carried out along its 11.5 km route. The most significant discoveries resulting from this work were a
late Neolithic hengiform monument at Royalton, early to middle Bronze Age evidence for tin processing associated with an unusual arrangement of pits, a hearth and a semicircular ditch at Belowda, two adjacent early Bronze Age pit circles, perhaps originally timber circles, at Lane End, and two Iron Age to Roman roundhouses, one at Belowda and the other at Lower Trenoweth. A range of other sites, including a possibly Mesolithic pit and medieval and
post-medieval tin prospecting pits were also investigated. A pollen sequence obtained from a palaeochannel provides evidence for the environmental history of the area from the middle Bronze Age to the modern period. The quantity of artefacts recovered, especially from the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites, was extremely limited, and particular stress has thus been placed upon soil micromorphology, soil chemistry and the analysis of charred plant remains to aid in the interpretation of the sites.