The Hurlers Stone Circles and their Quartz Floor
The Hurlers are part of a Bronze Age site located in Cornwall, England. When the enigmatic 'crystal' pavement was first discovered in 1930, the site was immediately regarded as one of a kind.
The 4,000-year-old monument sits on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor and is made up of three sequentially placed stone circles. Just to the west of the circles are positioned two menhirs known as 'Pipers'. Also nearby are Rillaton Barrow and Trethevy Quoit, two important monuments from the Neolithic period.
The name 'Hurlers' derives from a legend according to which the menhirs that make up the monument are a group of men magically transformed into stones as punishment for playing Cornish on Sunday. Another legend has it that it is impossible to count the number of menhirs precisely.
Starting from the one to the south, the three circles have a diameter of 33 meters, 42 meters, 35 meters. The two external circles are perfectly circular, while the middle one is slightly elliptical. The conditions of the southernmost stone circle are the most precarious, as of the original 9 stones that compose it, only two are currently standing, while the other seven are partially covered by the ground.
In the central circle, 14 out of 28 stones have survived, showing clear traces of hammer blows. The northern circle has kept 15 of the 30 original stones erect. Finally, the two 'pipers' are located approximately 100 meters south-west of the central circle and can be considered as the entrance to the Hurlers.
Alexander Thom has suggested that the Hurlers may be aligned astronomically with the stars Vega and Arcturus. Star alignments, compared with tabulations of astronomical declinations, confirm that the site may have been in use between 2100 and 1500 BC. Furthermore, a ground survey conducted in 2009 by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit indicated that there may also be a quarter circle and two other rows of stones.
The first mention of the Hurlers is attributed to the historian John Norden, who visited the site in 1584. Subsequently, in 1586 they were described by William Camden in Britain. In 1754 William Borlase published the first detailed description of the site. The first systematic excavation, during which the site was partly restored, took place in 1930 by CA Ralegh Radford. The intervention allowed the repositioning of some of the stones of the northern circle.
The most astonishing discovery, however, came in 1938, when an enigmatic quartz flooring was brought to light. Although this was an extraordinary find, the existence of the pavement only came to light recently, when Cornish archaeologist Jacky Nowakowski came across a series of documents during personal research.
While looking through the files, Jacky found an unpublished report and some Ministry of Works photographs of the Hurlers excavation in 1938. “I couldn't believe it,” the archaeologist said. “I've certainly never seen anything like this before. Such a pavement is a unique structure in the whole of Britain, as far as I know."
The Hurlers' stone monument is believed to be the only one of its kind in the British Isles. Although it has been studied for years, the original use of the site is still the subject of speculation and hypotheses. Some believe that its alignment reflects the celestial bodies that make up Orion's Belt, such as the three pyramids of Giza, while others argue that it was erected for religious purposes.
Whatever the truth, there is no doubt that it was a site of great importance to the people who inhabited the moor 4,000 years ago.
