A rich history

Devon boasts some of the most significant archaeological sites in the world. SU CARROLL goes back in time…

- SU CARROLL

Dartmoor is more than just a pretty place. The wide open spaces that have remained untouched for centuries offer us many clues to the lives of early settlers. The geology that made the moor difficult for farming has been the saving grace for archaeology and Dartmoor now has the largest preserved prehistoric lands in Europe.

One of the best known Bronze Age settlements at Grimspound reveals the remains of 24 houses within a massive boundary wall and at Merrivale there is evidence of ritual sites. These settlements are particularly well preserved on the open moor where the threat to them has come mainly from tin works and medieval rabbit warrens.

Archaeologists are learning a lot about the way the early settlers lived. Some of the houses were large, visible, buildings that stood for over a century. One settlement at Shaugh Moor, about ten miles from Plymouth on the fringes of Dartmoor, was discovered in the late 1970s and includes several hut circles (one with evidence of an internal partition wall) and old field boundaries.

Experts have discovered that the way the field systems are organised suggests they were divided off in an organised way into territories or administrative districts which indicates a level of social sophistication and evolution. There is evidence of rituals, too, which goes much wider than religion - at Merrivale there are cairns (stones arranged as a monument) and cists (or burial chambers) and in the Upper Plym Valley there are more than 300 Bronze Age sites.