Just for fun: What was a fogou used for?
Added 2021-08-03 18:51:23 +0000 UTC
Unless you've been living in a fogou, you may have heard that Time Team is returning this year to investigate an Iron Age settlement in Cornwall that features mysterious underground passages.
There are several other known examples of these 'fogous' dotted around this part of West Cornwall, including Chysauster, Carn Euny and Boleigh (which featured in an early episode of Time Team).
But what exactly was the purpose of a fogou? The classic interpretations tend to focus around storage for food, shelter from attack or some other undefined ritual purpose.
We hope to shed light on this question very soon – but, until then, let's opt for an entirely non-scientific approach! Just for fun, let us know what you think below...
Comments
They were constructed as part of a conspiracy to confuse archeologists in the distant future, and thus ensure the perpetuation of a very peculiar celtic sense of humour.
Greg Haley
2021-10-07 14:08:15 +0000 UTCGeneral Purpose. A little ritual, a little storage, children's games, maybe a temporary jail. I think while it may have been purpose-built originally, over time it became whatever was useful and was used for more than one thing at a time.
David Haapala
2021-09-02 10:15:39 +0000 UTCMulti-purpose community assembly venue. Including religious purposes, but also everything from moots to however they let their hair down. I can imagine a bunch people hanging out in a fogou for the prehistoric equivalent of a great night out. The little kids could be tucked up the the other side of a creep hole.
Linda-Teresa Merwood
2021-08-30 23:31:45 +0000 UTCcheese cave
Julie Freeman
2021-08-27 13:17:36 +0000 UTCWine cellar
Julie Freeman
2021-08-27 13:13:20 +0000 UTCDarkrooms for the local photographers
Mika
2021-08-23 18:34:45 +0000 UTCAll the above
William T Ross
2021-08-23 17:53:13 +0000 UTCThey look like storm shelters provided the opening could be blocked and water kept out. Here in the Midwest USA, tornado shelters, actually storm cellars, doubled as food storage cellars.
Jude Edling
2021-08-11 20:59:40 +0000 UTC🤣🤣🤣
Pia Fredfeldt
2021-08-10 08:32:49 +0000 UTCShelter from the Cornish climate, which can be wet and windy at any time of year. I am no expert on climate history, I assume that protruding out into the Northern Atlantic has always exposed far west Cornwall to the elements. I do not think there is a definitive answer other than ‘all of the above’. Once a fogou was built for any given purpose(s) I am sure other uses developed over time. It will be interesting to see what the archeologists find – just down to good old-fashioned trowel work.
Ian Smith
2021-08-10 00:10:57 +0000 UTCNo doubt all of the above, plus just looks like a nice quiet place to relax and hang out.
Paul
2021-08-09 21:52:25 +0000 UTCprupose of fogous - Getting away from the relatives
Jill Leslie
2021-08-09 18:35:17 +0000 UTCLol
Christina
2021-08-09 02:25:50 +0000 UTCUnitedStates. I've often wandered what the Romans would think of London today
Vicki Jackson
2021-08-08 22:16:53 +0000 UTCI think you are on the mark there. That's ONE type of ceremony, still celebrated in some places in the world within a similar chamber. We might now call it "rite of passage".
Scot AnSgeulaiche
2021-08-08 08:06:04 +0000 UTCHow perceptive of you! See my comment elsewhere.
Scot AnSgeulaiche
2021-08-08 08:04:49 +0000 UTCCross cultural comparison tells us that many societies made fogous. In each place they are used for ritual purposes. The easiest descriptive word today would be "church". That is, a multifunctional spiritual building. Yes they often contain burials, but they are not graves. As to food storage as a suggested use, I'd like to see an explanation as to what foods could be stored in a damp hole in the ground. I am not aware of any tuberous vegetables native to the UK that were harvested in any quantity worthy of a huge storage. Smoking, dehydrating and in some places salting make up the long term storage solutions in the British Isles.
Scot AnSgeulaiche
2021-08-08 08:03:25 +0000 UTCThey look cool in summer, and sheltered. Possibly hidden and easily defended. A place to hide for short duration.
Dorothy Frank
2021-08-07 15:59:03 +0000 UTCI'd guess a fogou was used like a root cellar or cold storage that saw usage in various forms from ancient times to the late 19th -- early 20th centuries when the advent of iceboxes and freon-based refrigeration developed.
Kay Theriault
2021-08-06 14:43:42 +0000 UTCMaybe for stuff which belonged to the community, not private use. @Shelter: They had kinda "houses", so they were protected from "standard poor weather" like rain and snow. But maybe they seeked shelter there when something extraordinary happened, like a really heavy thunder.
Simone Fritzen
2021-08-05 16:36:59 +0000 UTCSorry, pressed the wrong key! I was going to say that the fogous were hiding places where they lurked before springing out on their unfortunate victims. The tradition lasted all the way to the 20th Century, when the very last of the line, appropriately named "Fougasse", died (look him up in Wikipedia!)
Richard Davis
2021-08-05 14:02:23 +0000 UTCIt's not generally known that there were political cartoonists back in the stone age. The fougous were hiding places where they lurked to catch
Richard Davis
2021-08-05 13:58:55 +0000 UTCIt's clearly a mancave to hide from all the worldly responsibilities for a while. Probably filled with racy fertility idols, cool drawings of hunting, beverage mugs, pieces of flint to relax-knapp, tasty dried meat and stuff.
Jakub Jůzl
2021-08-05 11:14:26 +0000 UTCMultiple purposes. Hiding from attack, food storage, and perhaps also used for religious purposes when weather was bad?
Laura Ann Flynn
2021-08-05 02:27:39 +0000 UTCMystical representation of life/death/rebirth. Used for rebirth ceremonies
Laura Randolph
2021-08-05 01:18:26 +0000 UTCAlso the first known grottos before Hugh Hefner made them famous…
Todd Gillespie
2021-08-04 23:37:20 +0000 UTCShelter from sever weather and defense
Todd Gillespie
2021-08-04 23:35:13 +0000 UTCPossibly any and all of those purposes, and as Jonathan says, changing over time. Although Dagmar's idea about fermenting may have been a constant ;).
Anna Anderson
2021-08-04 23:10:20 +0000 UTCAir raid shelter, protection from those pesky Romans and their trebuchet!
John Beaumont
2021-08-04 21:24:28 +0000 UTCI find the opening to be much like a vagina in shape, could it be they are trying to go back into the womb for some religious purpose?
Judy DeRose
2021-08-04 19:02:22 +0000 UTCHow about a men's club? or women's club? For use in certain seasons.
Judy DeRose
2021-08-04 19:00:12 +0000 UTCWell, as most of you I think of a food storage. Safe and cold and the food near to its use
Gabriele Sarter
2021-08-04 17:17:46 +0000 UTCI believe the underground spaces were tied to the lore of the gods, mystical places for communication with them. Hmm, will there be evidence of decoration I wonder? We'll soon find out!
Alana Tolstad
2021-08-04 14:51:00 +0000 UTCNo we have garages but most not used for cars
Mark Cooke
2021-08-04 14:04:31 +0000 UTCI am inclined to believe it was used to store food. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be used as a storm shelter or protection from attack if needed.
Mark Schippel
2021-08-04 12:43:48 +0000 UTCfermenting cellar?
Dagmar Brugger
2021-08-04 11:19:09 +0000 UTCThat's my guess!!
Dagmar Brugger
2021-08-04 11:16:52 +0000 UTCI think it changed purpose over time. The sealed off passages will presumably be less "cleaned out" than the main section and might say something about earlier uses. Yes, I'm always greedy for more knowledge but I very reluctantly concede there's a limit. Just pretty please keep pushing that limit.
Jonathan Day
2021-08-04 09:56:13 +0000 UTCThese are constructed after the advent of farming, though; and things have changed dramatically in the intensity of effort required, resource competition and land use, by that time. I think we'd find a lot more in common with Iron Age pressures of life, than we would the Mesolithic, when we probably did have more time (and need) to watch the world. :)
Matthew Adams
2021-08-04 08:06:24 +0000 UTCGrowing mushrooms?
Joy Davies
2021-08-04 07:49:33 +0000 UTCKeeping the kids and older relatives quiet
Hatty Burrow
2021-08-04 07:41:44 +0000 UTCThe Iron Age equivalent of today’s ‘must have’ - the garden office
Philip Stack
2021-08-04 07:30:37 +0000 UTCSin bin?
Simon Beal
2021-08-04 07:26:31 +0000 UTCAs in Eastern Europe / Russia / China, etc. today, they are used for the storage of food during the winter. No such things as freezers then.
Kenneth Brawn
2021-08-04 07:17:23 +0000 UTCDefinitely Mums who needed some time out, a nice, quiet fogou.
Gill Palmer
2021-08-04 04:34:32 +0000 UTCPrison... throw people in there and stand at the entrance with a big sharp pointy thing and look smug. But honestly, I'm drawing a blank...
Mark Bousfield
2021-08-04 01:27:36 +0000 UTCOther......... "we have one and you don't" You have to be upscale to have a fogou!
Douglas Peterson
2021-08-04 01:02:46 +0000 UTCI think fogous was used as collective burial chambers. Chambers of the dead, where the living sometimes returned to ritually honor their ancestors. Perhaps the remains also were taken out of the fogou on special occasions, for example during the midsummer solstice, and then put back.
Erik Jonsson
2021-08-04 00:56:16 +0000 UTCRitual. That's Time-Teamese for "not a flipping clue".
Ruth Mastron
2021-08-04 00:56:14 +0000 UTCI am going to vote for all of the above (including beer) with the exception of refuge from attack. If an attacker found folks hiding there it would be simple matter to block the entrance and trap everyone inside.
Carl Christy
2021-08-04 00:55:22 +0000 UTCI don't see them being defensible, there never seems to be a way to close them off, to secure the entrance. Attackers could get in just as easy as the occupants. Nor would they need to be built as long and complex as some are, which serves no defensive purpose. I don't see them being food storage either, a much simpler root cellar would suffice, and be easier to build. There's never been any evidence of storage containers or shelving, anything that would point to a storage use that I'm aware of. The fact that they're more temperature constant is the only thing that suggest it as a possibility, I don't think that's enough. A ritual space is the only thing that would explain the expense in labor and the overall layout. Whether funeral rituals or season celebrations or otherwise is anyone's guess. It may not have even been built for the use of the builders, it may have been some kind of offering, a home for a local deity or similar.
Robert Boudreau
2021-08-04 00:43:01 +0000 UTCIf the fogou wasn’t too damp, then it would be a good place to keep their wood stores. Hazel rods would probably stay somewhat flexible.
Anne Holley-Hime
2021-08-04 00:06:42 +0000 UTCCornwall was obviously where all those giants of British / Irish folklore went on golf vacations. Stands to reason, doesn't it? 🧐🤣
Dire
2021-08-03 23:58:10 +0000 UTCI would hide in a fogou if pursued but that's the only thing that would send me down there! Yikes!!!
Terri
2021-08-03 23:51:23 +0000 UTCBeer cooler, obviously, and cheese aging, and growing mushrooms.
Pat Szastkiw
2021-08-03 23:41:48 +0000 UTCWeapons store, food for retreat / seige
B Grant
2021-08-03 23:41:39 +0000 UTCI would say all of the above, but possibly also shelter from extreme weather? Underground dwellings are more consistent in temperature. I don't know if the weather got very hot back then, though perhaps a few days a year. And it might be easier to keep warm in winter than an above ground building.
Tamra Prior
2021-08-03 23:33:44 +0000 UTCQuarantine during Iron Age lockdowns.
Jo Wilson
2021-08-03 23:09:04 +0000 UTCAll of the above.
Lesley K Spivey
2021-08-03 22:37:28 +0000 UTCI believe it was a multi purpose structure ,food storage ,safety from attack and safety from storms.
Richard Kaskeski
2021-08-03 22:35:48 +0000 UTCAll of the above
Susan Given
2021-08-03 22:33:26 +0000 UTCRoot cellar ... that's all i'll go for; and wait for the archaeology to tell us what it is, as usual....
Don Cook
2021-08-03 22:21:27 +0000 UTCI am of the opinion that Fogous were multi-purpose, safe, cool, and defensible structures used for a variety of purposes. If we compare a Fogou to a cool dark room or cellar in modern times (yes crude but bear with me), it could be used for cool storage, as shelter for humans or animals during inclement weather, quiet places for religious ceremonies or personal worship/reflection, and almost certainly subject to the play of adolescents from time to time. Sure, some Fogous seem to be used more exclusively for one purpose or another in certain locales, perhaps during particular seasons, fluctuations in population or unexpected visitors, moments in time of civil unrest, or in accordance with familial or communal preferences. But, if we view the purpose of Fogous as a whole from the perspective of a kaleidoscope, it is easier to see how they served essentially as multi-purpose rooms, and better marries the wide variety of evidence produced in prior study.
Ari Wick
2021-08-03 21:53:41 +0000 UTCTo store the dead until they can get buried at the proper festivity. In northern Sweden they had (until recently) special sheds where they put the dead until the ground thawed in spring. They where called stacking sheds (stappelboa).
John Kjellberg
2021-08-03 21:49:17 +0000 UTCFor sheltering livestock from predators at night.
Klaasjan Schuuring
2021-08-03 21:46:50 +0000 UTCObviously ritual .... (aka could be anything really)
Richard Abbott
2021-08-03 21:44:38 +0000 UTCI wonder if seed stocks in particular may not have been stored in them, not only for preservation from decay and rodents, but also for despotic control by those in the ruling class/es in the hierarchical social system of the time. Such control might protect seed stocks also from being raided in seasonal periods of scarcity. Perhaps also certain valuable (metal) tools, regalia, and ritual items -- a kind of vault perhaps.
William Tinney
2021-08-03 21:31:52 +0000 UTCHunting over night harbour. A bit like a bothie
Magnus Wake
2021-08-03 21:31:36 +0000 UTCI concur, all of the above, including just plain old shelter.
Toby Martin
2021-08-03 21:18:55 +0000 UTCprobably all of the above plus some purpose that is totally beyond our comprehension.
Nikki Newman
2021-08-03 21:17:28 +0000 UTCI think all of the above dependent on circumstances.
Erica Griffith
2021-08-03 21:17:20 +0000 UTCBoth food storage and shelter from attack, shelter from bad weather also. Perhaps originally ritual or community based, but they probably served more than one purpose.
Joanie Berkwitz
2021-08-03 21:14:27 +0000 UTCChalk me up as "other" - where "other" is "all of the above". :-)
Christopher Samuel
2021-08-03 20:56:45 +0000 UTCThe one at Chysauster wouldn’t have been big enough or the entrance concealed enough to provide much shelter from attack. But that doesn’t rule out some kind of ritual purpose, a lot of work went into making them.
Nina Gadsdon
2021-08-03 20:50:41 +0000 UTCTo keep out of the weather - seriously, have you experienced how cold and windy Cornwall can get?!
Robyn Cuskelly
2021-08-03 20:49:34 +0000 UTCFor making fougasse
That idiot Chris
2021-08-03 20:47:12 +0000 UTCKeeping beers cold
Mark Freestone
2021-08-03 20:46:38 +0000 UTCMaybe a little bit of all three and some more. I think we really underestimate what we did back then
Alvaro Cuenca
2021-08-03 20:45:33 +0000 UTCI don't think they have found any food detritus or pottery in them have they?? ...Maybe they stored water in leather bags in them??
Elizabeth Nickless
2021-08-03 20:36:33 +0000 UTCI think they were likely multipurpose given the work involved in the construction. I would guess both for storage and refuge.
Rick Garrett
2021-08-03 20:36:09 +0000 UTCThey certainly do provide a mystery. Could a microscopic analysis of the existing soil dispel the food storage theory?
Eggs Ackley
2021-08-03 20:21:36 +0000 UTCSomewhere to be away from the kids.
Euan Fyfe
2021-08-03 20:01:12 +0000 UTCMan cave😊
Julia Garlick
2021-08-03 20:00:43 +0000 UTCNo one really knows.
Lyn Howe
2021-08-03 19:58:04 +0000 UTCHow can we test the assumption that the alternatives are mutually exclusive?
William F. Campbell
2021-08-03 19:56:40 +0000 UTCI don't think they really know as yet what they was used for but from list above any of those seem plausible
Jason Lovatt
2021-08-03 19:52:08 +0000 UTCClearly, fugous were used to store pufferfish sushi.
Beth
2021-08-03 19:51:35 +0000 UTCExtreme Hide and Seek.
Beth
2021-08-03 19:50:34 +0000 UTCLikely to have been primarily for practical use, food storage, a refuge and a quiet alone space.
Graham Thorn
2021-08-03 19:46:28 +0000 UTCI think they were use for all of the above, Storage of food, since under ground it is cooler and would preserve food longer, for shelter, for safety as well as for religious..
Donna Oglesby
2021-08-03 19:41:06 +0000 UTCHaha
Paula ODonnell
2021-08-03 19:31:37 +0000 UTCMan cave? LOL. Sorry, couldn't resist!
Elizabeth L. Morgan
2021-08-03 19:29:34 +0000 UTCI think its a combination of all of the above. Since we know next to nothing about their religious beliefs its all conjecture.
Thomas E Small
2021-08-03 19:29:25 +0000 UTCGiven the sheer herculean amount of labor, with or without ancient cranes or equipment, and the number of people involved to locate, excavate and assemble a fogous, it must have been mightily significant to its community. Especially significant is the circular destination "room" with architecturally exact tall walls, dome (long before later church vaults/domes) --and that high-arched top of a View to the Sky? What is the time in construction--is there dating evidence if fogous took years or decades? And most poignant and mysterious is the frequency of a central huge slab/stone. Built for a ritual of the community or for some edification of a single individual? But how can we Moderns EVER imagine our minds and lives back to the days of thousands of years earlier.
Martha Berryman
2021-08-03 19:27:40 +0000 UTCAbsolutely! "We should seek to avoid making the mistake of assuming our experience of the world always applies in the past because things have not always been as they are now." Our brains, our motives, our imaginations, such things as belief in Secular Progress, and lives of busy, busy focus on "more" or "faster". What about a time when we humans just WATCHED the world?
Martha Berryman
2021-08-03 19:27:27 +0000 UTCEver have a clubhouse as a kid? Hey, you use the materials at hand, right?
Daniel Defoe
2021-08-03 19:23:55 +0000 UTCThis looks to me like the artificially cooled buildings erected to store cheese and other food. Storing and making the most of what would have been a seasonal glut of dairy products would have been important: is it possible to make lipid or aDNA studies that will establish this? I know that (for example) Cheddar cheese was stored in caves in Cheddar Gorge, (as was and still is, beer). Are your fougou users cheesemongers?
Vincent Russett
2021-08-03 19:23:21 +0000 UTCPhil’s secret napping spot…
Tim Van Leeuwen
2021-08-03 19:22:09 +0000 UTCCreep passage used for special food storage (restricted opening), main part used for ceremonial or formal meetings (which could have included eating some of the stored special foods).
Lynn Edwards
2021-08-03 19:22:05 +0000 UTCA quiet place to meditate with the mind altering substance du jour.
April Keene
2021-08-03 19:21:55 +0000 UTCSeveral purposes. Shelter when needed, storage for specific foods and times, space for times when someone important is sick and dies, before putting body in a grave, a mourning space. ,
Laura Soto-Barra
2021-08-03 19:20:36 +0000 UTCI doubt they would have had an exclusive use, so all three as the need arose
Paul Gleeson
2021-08-03 19:20:10 +0000 UTCRitual, most of them drip water so not for food. The creeps, stumble stones and projections from the ceilings all add a ritualistic feel.
Elayne Bines
2021-08-03 19:18:27 +0000 UTCThe actual usage is not clear, must be ritual. Always is, ask Francis!
Clive Hobbs
2021-08-03 19:14:05 +0000 UTCTo keep the ale chilled!!!!
Michael Schneider
2021-08-03 19:11:09 +0000 UTCWe should seek to avoid making the mistake of assuming our experience of the world always applies in the past because things have not always been as they are now. It is possible that some underground structures were constructed as bunkers because things were more regularly falling out of the sky at that time. Recent experience shows us that small changes in climate can result in hailstones the size of tennis balls and we know that there have been periods in which meteorite activity is more common.
Terry Cox
2021-08-03 19:10:23 +0000 UTCA riddle planted for future archaeologists or a cold cellar for butter and meat storage
Ann H
2021-08-03 19:07:58 +0000 UTCShelter from incessant high winds and inclement weather common to Cornwall.
Ward
2021-08-03 19:07:31 +0000 UTCOK, just for fun.... built to either hide from alien attack or like the pyramids they focus the earth's energy and can sharpen blades..... I am glad I don't believe what I write!!
Richard Vine
2021-08-03 19:07:10 +0000 UTCBoth for food storage and shelter from attach
John Gill
2021-08-03 19:06:17 +0000 UTCPlace to eat fugu.
Steven Craighead
2021-08-03 19:05:10 +0000 UTCTemperature controlled environment protected from scavengers. That much effort at a community level must have been for food storage.
Jennifer Hess
2021-08-03 19:04:58 +0000 UTCUpstairs vs Downstairs. Downstairs in foggy.
Steven Craighead
2021-08-03 19:04:13 +0000 UTCMan Cave. Where else would you chill out and play video games and watch sports?
Paul Tomblin
2021-08-03 19:03:53 +0000 UTCAvoid the Tribal chief's tax collector...
Ray Roberts
2021-08-03 19:03:52 +0000 UTCNuclear Fallout shelter
Steven Craighead
2021-08-03 19:03:16 +0000 UTCMultiple uses, with change over time possible. So, food storage in containers is a possible use, and perhaps rituals and initiation rites are another? I wonder if the shape of the entry trench being a reverse "J" is a hint about the main use? Perhaps that 180° bend in the entry trench has to do with keeping light out?
Robert Wise
2021-08-03 19:00:42 +0000 UTCStorage and shelter. Not sure about a ritual practice area.
Sherry Cartmill
2021-08-03 18:59:59 +0000 UTCI also tend towards "all of the above". With a healthy dash of "they've got a fogou; we want one too"
Matthew Adams
2021-08-03 18:59:27 +0000 UTCThe temps stay constant underground. Practical everyday shelter?
Carole Cox
2021-08-03 18:58:51 +0000 UTCProbably to store food, Bet they were multipurpose though. Iron Age man-cave shed.
Craig O’Malley
2021-08-03 18:58:47 +0000 UTCToilet.
Jon Colcord
2021-08-03 18:58:15 +0000 UTCwomb/rebirth related rituals. And possibly food storage and beer making.
Dinah from Kabalor
2021-08-03 18:57:58 +0000 UTCWhere else are you going to put the iron age stew and paleo bread?
Donna Holt
2021-08-03 18:56:20 +0000 UTCAll the above!
Barry Sterry
2021-08-03 18:56:08 +0000 UTCAll of the above (including beer)
Paul Bivand
2021-08-03 18:56:05 +0000 UTCMy guess would be some kind of funerary practice, or maybe even a burial chamber, like a passage grave. That is, not 'ritual' or 'religious' in the hand-waving sense, but of a more practical purpose.
David Hazel
2021-08-03 18:55:21 +0000 UTCBeer.
Pross
2021-08-03 18:53:53 +0000 UTC
