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The Excavation of a Stone Alignment and Circle at Cholwichtown, Lee Moor, Devonshire, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

George Eogan  and
I. G. Simmons
I. G. Simmons
Affiliation:
The Durham Colleges in the University of Durham
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Extract

The site (National Grid Reference 3X584622) stands on a westward spur of the Penn Beacon ridge near the southern edge of Dartmoor. As is common throughout the moor the underlying rock is granite and in the neighbourhood of Cholwichtown this has altered to ‘china’ clay. There are a number of outcrops, but in most places the granite has a light covering of soil on which a thin layer of black raw humus, peat-like in appearance, has formed. This now produces coarse grass. From the evidence provided by the small dumps of upcast at socket no. 72 it appears that only a very thin layer of humus, about an inch in thickness, covered the soil at that point when the monument was constructed.

Excavation has shown that the structure consisted of an alignment 235 yards long and having originally at least ninety-one uprights and a circle 16 feet in diameter that originally had eight orthostats. Dr Simmons has shown (Appendix) that the monument was built in a clearing, then either grassland or heathland, among the woodland and scrub, but as he points out the pollen analysis does not give any indication of date: it is not known if these clearances were made by the people who constructed the alignment and circle or if the structure was built on land cleared at an earlier date.

The monument is not situated in a conspicuous position but, nevertheless, commands a reasonably extensive view, especially towards the south and south-west.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 30 , December 1964 , pp. 25 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1964

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