Prehistoric Settlements on Dartmoor and the Cornish Moors

Abstract

It is not my intention in this paper to deal with the whole field of antiquities found on the southwestern moors and I shall only refer to the sepulchral and other remains of a ritual character in so far as they have a direct bearing on the interpretation of the settlements (fig. 1). Inclusion of the Cornish moors is prompted by the fact that certain stages in the development of the settlements are not represented on Dartmoor but can be illustrated from the lower moorlands further west.The material on which my interpretation is based is largely the result of work carried out by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee of the Devonshire Association. Beginning in 1894 this Committee, in addition to other work, explored some 20 settlements excavating nearly 150 hut circles. The objects discovered are mostly in the City Museum at Plymouth and some of the pottery is now illustrated for the first time. Most of the Committee's work was carried out in the first ten years of its existence, but the excavation of a site now flooded by the Torquay Corporation's reservoir was undertaken as late as 1933 and the Committee remained in existence until 1950, when the Association reconstituted its arrangements in respect of Dartmoor. As the last surviving member of the old Dartmoor Exploration Committee it is perhaps fitting that it should fall to my lot to interpret the results then obtained in the light of more modern knowledge and methods. The Association has kindly sanctioned the republication of figs. 4, 5, 6 and 9.

Pattern Without a Plan: Rethinking the Bronze Age Coaxial Field Systems on Dartmoor, South‐west England

“…Elsewhere, it is possible to date a small number of the more than 300 buildings excavated by local antiquarians and archaeologists during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by their association with a style of pottery known as Trevisker Ware, which is considered to have been in use from c .1700 BC (Needham 1996; Parker Pearson 1990; cf. Radford 1952). A more unequivocal example of the relative date at which the buildings were constructed is that they are frequently in a primary relationship to and therefore earlier than the boundaries, either at the centre of a radial arrangement of small plots or incorporated into the course of one of the coaxial boundaries.…”

The Prehistoric Landscape of Dartmoor Part 2: North and East Dartmoor

“…2) form a part). Further west still is the well-known Foale's Arrishes complex (Radford 1952 , fig. Some 2 km to the SW lies Welstor, in whose fields quantities of flint implements and spindle whorls have been found (Adams and Dewey 1950).…”

Ancient Agriculture in the Highland of Britain

“…In this area a considerable amount of investigation has been and is being carried out on the problem of ancient agriculture (Fox 1954a(Fox , 1954b(Fox , 1969a(Fox , 1969bFowler and Thomas 1962;Guthrie 1969;Hencken 1932;Megaw 1961;Mercer 1970;Newcomb 1970;Peacock 1969;Radford 1952;Simmons 1969;Thomas A. C. 1958). As yet there is no evidence for ancient fields or plots on Exmoor (Grinsell 1970, 77), but the copious records for Devon and Cornwall include those of both low-level and upland prehistoric agriculture.…”