Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Just for fun: What was a fogou used for? (Patreon)

Published:
2021-08-03 18:51:23
Edited:
2021-08-03 18:52:51
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Poll

Just for fun: What was a fogou used for?

  • Storage for food 486
  • Shelter from attack 114
  • Some ritual or religious purpose 227
  • Other (add your suggestions to the comments section) 99
  • 2021-08-03
  • 926 votes
{'title': 'Just for fun: What was a fogou used for?', 'choices': [{'text': 'Storage for food', 'votes': 486}, {'text': 'Shelter from attack', 'votes': 114}, {'text': 'Some ritual or religious purpose', 'votes': 227}, {'text': 'Other (add your suggestions to the comments section)', 'votes': 99}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2021, 8, 3, 18, 51, 23, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 926}

Content

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...

Files

Comments

Andy Grigg

It looks clear that they are associated with trade, and trade with mainland Europe and Africa at that, so what was being traded here was obviously very valuable to be worth the round trip. So to store a valuable commodity safely, surely you'd need a strong room. So that's my thought.

Pross

Beer.

David Hazel

My 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.

Paul Bivand

All of the above (including beer)

Donna Holt

Where else are you going to put the iron age stew and paleo bread?

Dinah Sanders

womb/rebirth related rituals. And possibly food storage and beer making.

Craig O’Malley

Probably to store food, Bet they were multipurpose though. Iron Age man-cave shed.

Carole Cox

The temps stay constant underground. Practical everyday shelter?

Matthew Adams

I also tend towards "all of the above". With a healthy dash of "they've got a fogou; we want one too"

Sherry Cartmill

Storage and shelter. Not sure about a ritual practice area.

Robert Wise

Multiple 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?

Ray Roberts

Avoid the Tribal chief's tax collector...

Paul Tomblin

Man Cave. Where else would you chill out and play video games and watch sports?

Steven Craighead

Upstairs vs Downstairs. Downstairs in foggy.

Jennifer Hess

Temperature controlled environment protected from scavengers. That much effort at a community level must have been for food storage.

John Gill

Both for food storage and shelter from attach

Richard Vine

OK, 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!!

Ward

Shelter from incessant high winds and inclement weather common to Cornwall.

Ann H

A riddle planted for future archaeologists or a cold cellar for butter and meat storage

Terry Cox

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. 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.

Clive Hobbs

The actual usage is not clear, must be ritual. Always is, ask Francis!

Elayne Bines

Ritual, most of them drip water so not for food. The creeps, stumble stones and projections from the ceilings all add a ritualistic feel.

Paul Gleeson

I doubt they would have had an exclusive use, so all three as the need arose

Laura Soto-Barra

Several 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. ,

April Keene

A quiet place to meditate with the mind altering substance du jour.

Lynn Edwards

Creep 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).

Tim 63

Phil’s secret napping spot…

Vincent Russett

This 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?

Daniel Defoe

Ever have a clubhouse as a kid? Hey, you use the materials at hand, right?

Martha Berryman

Absolutely! "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

Given 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.

Thomas E Small

I think its a combination of all of the above. Since we know next to nothing about their religious beliefs its all conjecture.

Donna Oglesby

I 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..

Graham Thorn

Likely to have been primarily for practical use, food storage, a refuge and a quiet alone space.

Beth

Extreme Hide and Seek.

Beth

Clearly, fugous were used to store pufferfish sushi.

Jason Lovatt

I don't think they really know as yet what they was used for but from list above any of those seem plausible

William F. Campbell

How can we test the assumption that the alternatives are mutually exclusive?

Lyn Howe

No one really knows.

Euan Fyfe

Somewhere to be away from the kids.

Eggs Ackley

They certainly do provide a mystery. Could a microscopic analysis of the existing soil dispel the food storage theory?

Rick Garrett

I think they were likely multipurpose given the work involved in the construction. I would guess both for storage and refuge.

Elizabeth Nickless

I don't think they have found any food detritus or pottery in them have they?? ...Maybe they stored water in leather bags in them??

Alvaro Cuenca

Maybe a little bit of all three and some more. I think we really underestimate what we did back then

Robyn Cuskelly

To keep out of the weather - seriously, have you experienced how cold and windy Cornwall can get?!

Nina Gadsdon

The 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.

Christopher Samuel

Chalk me up as "other" - where "other" is "all of the above". :-)

Joanie Berkwitz

Both 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.

Erica Griffith

I think all of the above dependent on circumstances.

Nikki Newman

probably all of the above plus some purpose that is totally beyond our comprehension.

Toby Martin

I concur, all of the above, including just plain old shelter.

Magnus Wake

Hunting over night harbour. A bit like a bothie

William Tinney

I 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.

Richard Abbott

Obviously ritual .... (aka could be anything really)

John Kjellberg

To 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).

Ari Wick

I 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.

Don Cook

Root cellar ... that's all i'll go for; and wait for the archaeology to tell us what it is, as usual....

the polish dude

I believe it was a multi purpose structure ,food storage ,safety from attack and safety from storms.

Jo Wilson

Quarantine during Iron Age lockdowns.

Tamra Prior

I 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.

B Grant

Weapons store, food for retreat / seige

Pat Szastkiw

Beer cooler, obviously, and cheese aging, and growing mushrooms.

Terri

I would hide in a fogou if pursued but that's the only thing that would send me down there! Yikes!!!

Dire

Cornwall was obviously where all those giants of British / Irish folklore went on golf vacations. Stands to reason, doesn't it? 🧐🤣

Anne Holley-Hime

If 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.

Robert Boudreau

I 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.

Carl Christy

I 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.

Ruth Mastron

Ritual. That's Time-Teamese for "not a flipping clue".

Erik Jonsson

I 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.

Douglas Peterson

Other......... "we have one and you don't" You have to be upscale to have a fogou!

Mark Bousfield

Prison... 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...

Gill Palmer

Definitely Mums who needed some time out, a nice, quiet fogou.

Philip Stack

The Iron Age equivalent of today’s ‘must have’ - the garden office

Hatty Burrow

Keeping the kids and older relatives quiet

Matthew Adams

These 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. :)

Jonathan Day

I 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.

Mark Schippel

I 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 Cooke

No we have garages but most not used for cars

Alana Tolstad

I 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!

Gabriele Sarter

Well, as most of you I think of a food storage. Safe and cold and the food near to its use

Judy DeRose

How about a men's club? or women's club? For use in certain seasons.

Judy DeRose

I 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?

John Beaumont

Air raid shelter, protection from those pesky Romans and their trebuchet!

Anna Anderson

Possibly any and all of those purposes, and as Jonathan says, changing over time. Although Dagmar's idea about fermenting may have been a constant ;).

Todd Gillespie

Shelter from sever weather and defense

Todd Gillespie

Also the first known grottos before Hugh Hefner made them famous…

Laura Randolph

Mystical representation of life/death/rebirth. Used for rebirth ceremonies

Laura Ann Flynn

Multiple purposes. Hiding from attack, food storage, and perhaps also used for religious purposes when weather was bad?

Jakub Jůzl

It'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.

Richard Davis

It'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

Sorry, 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!)

Simone Fritzen

Maybe 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.

Kay Theriault

I'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.

Dorothy Frank

They look cool in summer, and sheltered. Possibly hidden and easily defended. A place to hide for short duration.

Scot AnSgeulaiche

Cross 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

How perceptive of you! See my comment elsewhere.

Scot AnSgeulaiche

I 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".

Vicki Jackson

UnitedStates. I've often wandered what the Romans would think of London today

Jill Leslie

prupose of fogous - Getting away from the relatives

Paul

No doubt all of the above, plus just looks like a nice quiet place to relax and hang out.

Ian Smith

Shelter 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.

Jude Edling

They 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.

Mika

Darkrooms for the local photographers

Linda-Teresa Merwood

Multi-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.

David Haapala

General 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.

Greg Haley

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.