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Summary

Hut Circles '5A' and '5B' in the enclosed hut settlement on Dean Moor an adjoining pair of huts in the centre of the enclosure were excavated in 1954-6.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/73/6
• Old SAM County Ref: 282/1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HUT CIRCLE (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

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

Feature shown as a rough rectangle on 19th century map.

Fox, A., 1957, Excavations at Dean Moor (1954-1956), pg. 46-8 fig.12-13 pl. V (Article in Serial). SDV167114.

Hut 5 A and B. A double hut in the centre of the pound, an irregular oval in outline, badly collapsed and choked with stone. Consisted of two dwellings divided by a common wall, each with a hearth, and with separate entrances opening in different directions. Of one build. The two huts were roofed independently.
Hut 5a (the western unit). Some very large slabs were built into the common wall, and into the spur of walling flanking the entrance on the lower south side, which buttressed the structure on the slope.
Entry: uphill by a cobbled and stepped approach beside the buttress. Paved threshold. Floor was the usual dark gritty layer. Boulder used as a fireback, beside it a hole filled with sooty soil (fig.12, 5). May have been a posthole, or a cooking hole.
Oval pit in centre of floor, edged with loose pitched stones and filled with soil flecked with charcoal. Contained many broken sherds of coarse pottery, including the rim, cordon and handle of a large storage jar with incised decoration. Other pieces were trodden into the floor, together with a flint flake. In the recess at the back, the floor was cleaner, containing patches of grey sandy soil, probably from a lean-to roof of turf. A flint implement and a whetstone (fig.23,3) found here beside the wall base. Recess adequate for two people to sleep in, curled up.
A large boulder on opposite side shut off part of the back of the hut, and supported the dividing wall to hut 5b. Four stone-packed postholes, irregularly arranged.
Hut 5b (the eastern unit). Walls had collapsed downhill. Entrance on east with a cobbled approach to a narrow doorway flanked by an upright slab. Inside the hut was cobbled throughout with small pieces of granite. The floor was covered with 51-76mm of black greasy occupation soil containing much charcoal. Hearth on lower side, backed by a natural boulder and paved in front. Fireplace was 76mm deep in soot and charcoal.
A piece of tin ore, cassiterite, an implement and three pieces of flint and some pottery scraps were found trodden into the floor by the hearth. A shale spindle-whorl (fig.22, 3), a granite rubber (fig.24,13), twelve quartz pebbles and thirteen waterworn stones were found in the occupation soil. In the north-west quarter, there was a layer of fine, dark, moist soil below the cobbled floor, which sank down and filled three small pits (figs.12-13), shallow irregular depressions.
Pit 3 produced a rim and an incised potsherd. Small refuse pits or soakaways, or holes left when a boulder was removed. Four postholes found.

Unknown, 1957, Find from hut in settlement on Dean Moor (Museum Collection). SDV147125.

Unspecified find noted as being in museum collection.

Pearce, S. M., 1976, The Middle and Late Bronze Age Metalwork of the South-West and its Relationship to Settlement, pg. 28 (Article in Serial). SDV338753.

Lump of tin ore, cassiterite, from floor of Hut 5b. Found during excavation of occupation site where tin working had been carried on.

Pearce, S. M., 1983, The Bronze Age Metalwork of South Western Britain, 440 (Monograph). SDV341822.

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

Hut Circles '5A' of circa 4.9 metres diameter with an entrance to the south and the adjoining Hut Circle '5B' of 4.6 to 4.9 metres diameter with an entrance to the east at 'Brockhill Foot West enclosure'. A boulder wall connects these huts to 'Hut Circle '4' to the south. A recess in the wall of '5A' may have been the sleeping quarters. A doorpost still stands at the entrance of '5B' which is a strangely angular building in which was found an unaltered cassiterite pebble no doubt picked up from the bed of the Avon.

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.

Two adjoining huts shown on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV2415 - POT (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)
• FDV2417 - POT (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)
• FDV2418 - POT (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)
• FDV3211 - POT (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)
• FDV2419 - SPINDLE WHORL (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)
• FDV2416 - POT (Late Bronze Age - 1000 BC to 701 BC)
• FDV3210 - VESSEL (Late Bronze Age - 1000 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Events

• EDV8466 - Excavations in the Avon Valley

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