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Summary

Hut Circle '7' on the east side of the enclosed hut settlement on Dean Moor with a small annex to the south-west was excavated in 1954-6

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1003828: Hut circles and two enclosures on Dean Moor, near River Avon

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/73/8

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

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

'Hut Circles shown on 19th century map.

Fox, A., 1957, Excavations at Dean Moor (1954-1956), pg. 49-52 fig.15-16 pl. Vi (Article in Serial). SDV167114.

Hut 7. Had collapsed, but occupation layers were undisturbed beneath the debris. Near east entrance of the pound. On the lower side, a massive boulder has been set transversely to strengthen the construction, and another over 1.8 metres long incorporated into the face.
Entrance from south-west, by a narrow cobbled and stepped approach flanked by an upright slab. Screened by two similar slabs, now prostrate, enclosing with the wall of Hut 8 a working space or yard. Floor had large patches of paving, covered by 76-102 millimetres of occupation soil, deepest on lower side, where it contained much charcoal.
Hearth towards back of hut, in line with the entrance. It was made on a bedded slab and edged by small upright stones as a fender. A hazelnut shell and blob of tin slag found amongst the charcoal spread around the hearth. A pottery rim decorated with one line of fine plaited cord impressions was found in a patch of charcoal south-east of the hearth. Ball of clay in a crevice in centre of hut, indicated that pottery had been made there. Beside it was a cavity floored with a slab, containing five small water-worn stones; may have been a puddling basin. Seven water-worn stones and two pieces of flint found in the hearth area, and a grooved whetstone and scrap of red ochre near the door.
Hut roof supported on a post-ring of seven posts, symmetrically arranged around a centre post. Large storage pit annexed to west side of the hut (pl. Vib). It held a foot of black greasy soil. Pit enclosed by a circular wall of small stones. Probably a cellar for storing perishables. Would have been lightly roofed over with small timber, thatch or sods, making a separate low half-dome below the main hut roof.

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

Blob of tin from floor of Hut 7. Found during excavation of occupation site where tin working had been carried on.

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

Hut Circle '7' of 6.5 to 6.8 metres in diameter on the east side of 'Brockhill Foot West enclosure'. The main building, now just above the waterline, provides the best evidence so far that tin was being smelted on the moor, presumably in the production of bronze. A tiny bead of tin slag was found amongst the charcoal near the hearth apparently brought into the hut from the smelting process somewhere close by.
The excavation of the ‘annex’, a familiar enough structure outside many a Dartmoor hut, was also of extraordinary interest. It turned out to be an underground storage chamber, 2.5 metres across, and about a metre deep, the lower half laboriously hammered out of solid granite. This structure implies year-round occupation of the site, rather than merely seasonal use as a summer shelter.

Quinnell, H., 2012, Trevisker Pottery: some recent Studies, 146-71 (Article in Monograph). SDV360640.

Ordnance Survey, 2015, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV357601.

Depicted on the modern mapping.

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

Visible on aerial photograph.

Quinnell, H., 2017, Dartmoor and Prehistoric to Early Medieval Tinworking, Dartmoor and Prehistoric to Early Medieval Tinworking, 21 (Article in Monograph). SDV360639.

Hut 7 at the enclosed Dean Moor settlement revealed secure data for Middle Bronze Age tinworking on the moor, producing a 3.2 millimetre globule of smelted tin within a burnt spread around a hearth. Ceramics from this site have now been confidently dated to the period 14th-12th century BC in light of current knowledge of Trevisker ceramics and their development (citing Quinnell, 2011).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV5815 - BEAD (Middle Bronze Age - 1500 BC to 1001 BC)
• FDV3213 - POT (Middle Bronze Age - 1400 BC to 1100 BC)

Associated Events

• EDV8466 - Excavations in the Avon Valley

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