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Summary

Cairn incorporating a possibly deliberately placed deposit of pottery, bone and charcoal.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAIRN (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 42 AD (Between))

Full description

Smith, G. + David, A. + Jones, R. + Quinnell, H., 2021, A Late Bronze Age Field System and Settlement at Dainton, South Devon, 72-77; Figs 2,15, 16 (Article in Serial). SDV365337.

Excavation by English Heritage’s Central Excavation Unit in 1986 recorded a roundhouse and adjoining cairn previously part-excavated in 1949. The cairn had been investigated in 1949 by removal of one quadrant and of a 0.91m wide transect through its centre along with gridded excavation of the adjoining ring bank. The backfill of the 1949 trench was first re-excavated as far as it was possible to identify, and the remainder of the cairn then excavated. It was circa 8m in diameter and 0.30m high. It was well defined in plan although it had no edging stones. There were no features below the cairn to suggest a function but it differed from the other cairns in that it was built mainly of small, angular stones compared to the larger stones found in the cairns in fields 55 and 59. There was a slight “core” of larger stones at the centre of the cairn, which was probably a remnant of the adjacent roundhouse wall.
The 1949 excavation recorded no finds within the cairn but a number below it, including pottery, a spindle whorl and animal teeth. In 1986, however, more objects were found within the cairn than below it, including pottery mainly similar to that from the roundhouse but with a few pieces of other fabric, as well as two yellow-glass beads and part of a turned shale armlet. Below the cairn and close to its centre was a slight concentration of pottery, bone and charcoal fragments. The presence of some rather special objects within and below the cairn hinted at a deliberately placed deposit. The cairn was evidently built using stones from the house wall-bank, explaining the removal of part of the wall adjoining the cairn, confirming that it was not just a field clearance cairn.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds

• FDV8149 - BEAD (Middle Iron Age to I - 300 BC to 100 AD)

Associated Events: none recorded

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