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Summary

Hut Circle '2' is situated in the centre of the enclosed hut settlement with a line of boulders sub-dividing the interior. Excavated in 1954-6

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/73/3
• Old SAM County Ref: 282/1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HUT CIRCLE (Constructed, Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Enclosure and 'Hut Circles' shown on 19th century map.

Fox, A., 1957, Excavations at Dean Moor (1954-1956), Pg. 40-3 figure 7-9, plates 2b, iv (Article in Serial). SDV167114.

Hut 2 is situated in the centre of the enclosure.
The largest hut in the settlement. Two beads of carnelian found in it. Massive walls, faced with large boulders, laid horizontally, on subsoil or evened up by small boulders or wedged by trig stones. Some set transversely in the wall. Other large boulders built into the upper courses and into the core of the wall. No attempt at coursing. Site had to be levelled up with a foot of stony packing and grey soil on the lower side. No external drainage ditch. Entrance on east side, flanked on the north by two large triangular boulders set upright one behind the other, the space between being filled with small stones. The south side was built of horizontal walling.
Entry is cobbled and approach paved and cobbled. No postholes for door frame found. On upper side of the hut inside, the floor was clean, hard and gritty. Three boulders earthfast had been left in a line at back of hut, partitioning off an inner compartment. Line of paving stones beside hut wall led to it.
Two used flints found in this room, and a piece of pottery, a rim with incised decoration (fig.21, no.10) found deep in a crevice between the boulders. On lower side of hut, floor was on top of stony packing, very uneven. Patches of grey soil suggested that it had been levelled with sods. Hearth in south-west quarter, towards back of hut; the fire had been made on two fine-grained granite slabs with a kerb of small stones bedded into the subsoil. Charcoal analysis showed oak had been burnt. Roof carried on a centre post wedged in a hole amongst the outcrop and on a circular setting of seven posts. Postholes contained packing stones or wedges. No depth of occupation soil in the hut and finds few. A whetstone, a red sandstone pebble pitted by hammering, three flints, and two waterworn stones found near the hearth. Broken piece of a granite saddle quern was embedded in the floor on the lower side. Two carnelian beads found towards centre of the hut. Deposit of iron ore embedded in the core of the hut. Several pieces found on the floor. Potsherds found at bottom of the wall core in association with ore.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 147-150, Map 57, Figure 57.16 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Hut Circle '2' at 'Brockhill Foot West enclosure' of 8.0 to 8.6 metres diameter is the largest building sited at the centre of the enclosure with a line of boulders subdividing the interior. The hut is shown with three openings to the south, southwest and east. Part of a saddle quern was found embedded in the working part of the floor and, more interestingly, an item of Bronze Age jewellery opposite the doorway. Two carnelian beads were lying on the old ground surface presumably dropped when the hut was finally abandoned, perhaps in a hurry. More enigmatic was the deposit of over 20 kilogrammes of iron ore built into the wall just below the entrance. Considerable effort went into fetching this heavy load, the nearest known outcrop being at least 8 kilometres away, but no attempt has been made to smelt it.

Bluesky International Ltd/Getmapping PLC, 2015-2017, 2015-2017 Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV361462.

Visible on aerial photograph.

Ordnance Survey, 2020, MasterMap 2020 (Cartographic). SDV363413.

Hut circle shown on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV3206 - POT (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2201 BC)
• FDV3208 - BEAD (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)
• FDV3207 - POT (Middle Bronze Age - 1500 BC to 1001 BC)

Associated Events

• EDV8466 - Excavations in the Avon Valley

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