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A Continental Palstave from the Ancient Field System on Horridge Common, Dartmoor, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Aileen Fox  and
Dennis Britton
Aileen Fox
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Dennis Britton
Affiliation:
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
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Extract

The ancient field system on Horridge Common, Ilsington, on the southern slopes of Dartmoor (fig. 1) has been known to scholars since 1954 but has never been studied in detail. In 1964 the owner of the adjoining Bagtor wood felled some timber and in order to remove it, had a broad track bulldozed from the Rippon Tor rifle range north-eastwards along the hill-side and across the field system, despite the fact that this was a scheduled ancient monument. In September 1965 Mr W. J. Hopkins, a ‘small-scale reviser’ of the Ordnance Survey, plotted the new track and noticed the palstave in the loose soil which had been churned up recently. The implement was eventually sent to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter, where I saw it; in May 1966, Mr Hopkins kindly visited the site with me and marked the exact position of the discovery (fig. 2). It was obvious that the palstave was not the usual south-western type and that its discovery within a Dartmoor field system was of particular interest; accordingly Mr Dennis Britton was asked to describe it and with the assistance of Mr D. Walling a survey was undertaken of the relevant group of huts and fields adjoining (fig. 2).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 35 , February 1970 , pp. 220 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1970

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References

page 220 note 1 Fox, A., Farms and fields on Dartmoor, PPS, XX (1954), p1. XXIGoogle Scholar.

page 220 note 2 As the site is within the Dartmoor National Park, the owner, Mr H. Whitley of Wellstor, Ashburton, referred the matter to the Devon County Council. He was told he could make the track provided the huts were avoided. The Ancient Monuments branch of the Ministry of Public Building and Works referred the case to the Treasury Solicitor, but after taking evidence, a prosecution was not proceeded with.

page 220 note 3 A former student, now Assistant Lecturer, Department of Geography, Exeter University.

page 222 note 1 PPS, XX (1954). loc. cit., fig. 3.

page 224 note 1 In the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, British Museum. I am obliged to Dr I. H. Longworth for arranging facilities in the Department and for showing me comparative material.

page 224 note 2 Childe, V. G., The Bronze Age (Cambridge, 1930) 65, 69Google Scholar; Gimbutas, M., Bronze Age Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe (The Hague, 1965) 72, 271–2, pl. 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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page 224 note 5 M. Gimbutas, op. cit., 284 ff.; Holste, F., Die Bronzezeit in Süd- und Westdeutschland (Berlin, 1953) especially 29, 41–2Google Scholar, 51, pls. 4, 10, 14. Contrast Ziegert, H., Zur Chronologie und Gruppengliederung der westlichen Hügelgräberkultur (Berlin, 1963)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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page 225 note 2 E.g., Kersten, K., Zur älteren nordischen Bronzezeit (Neumünster, 1936) 79–80Google Scholar on Bohemian palstaves. For axes from the north coming into Czechoslovakia, see: Kytlicová, O., Sborník Prací k Poctě 60. Narozenin Akademika Jana Filipa, Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philosophica et Historica, 3 (Praha, 1959) 129–38Google Scholar. (I am indebted to Dr J. J. Butler for this last reference.)

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page 226 note 1 Hawkes, Christopher, Man, XXXII (1932), p. 177CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Professor Hawkes realized these implications but since ‘Celtic fields’ were then thought to be Iron Age in origin did not press the point. The hoard is in the British Museum.

page 226 note 2 Shortt, H., Wilts. Arch. Mag., 53 (1949), p. 104Google Scholar. Mr E. V. Young's account of the find states that it was 58 feet from a negative lynchet and in the middle of the field, despite the plan showing it close to the lynchet. See also Smith, M. A., PPS, XXV (1959), p. 155Google Scholar.

page 226 note 3 Rahtz, P. and ApSimon, A. M., PPS, XXVIII (1962), p. 307Google Scholar.

page 226 note 4 Thomas, A. C., Proc. W. Cornwall. F.C., 2 (1960–1961), p. 200Google Scholar. Interim report.

page 226 note 5 Cf. Fowler, P. J. and Evans, J. G., Plough marks, lynchets and early fields. Antiquity, XLI (1967), p. 289CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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page 226 note 8 The Bournemouth region and the Deverel-Rimbury problem reconsidered. Arch. Journ., 119 (1962), p. 1Google Scholar.

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page 227 note 2 Illustrated, A. Fox, South West England, pl. 38.

page 227 note 3 Radford, C. A. R., PPS, XVIII (1952), pl. VIIGoogle Scholar, 2 and fig. 13, 1 for the pottery; SX 757783 for the site.

page 227 note 4 By E. Greenfield. Publication by Ministry of Works, with the report on the pottery by A. M. ApSimon, has been delayed since 1960.

page 227 note 5 A. C. Thomas, loc. cit.: see also Megaw, V., Cornish Arch., 4 (1965), 48Google Scholar.

page 227 note 6 Cf. Butler, J. J., Bronze Age Connections across the North Sea, Palaeohistoria, IX (1963), pp. 75–80Google Scholar and Smith, M.PPS, XXV (1959), 144Google Scholar.

page 227 note 7 Preliminary note, Cornish Archaeology, 3 (1964), p. 85Google Scholar. A selection of the finds are exhibited at the Truro Museum.

page 227 note 8 M. Smith, loc. cit.

page 227 note 9 Radford, loc. cit., fig. 20, 4, fig. 21, 12.

page 227 note 10 A. Fox, loc. cit., fig. 20, 4.

page 228 note 1 A. Fox, South West England, pl. 40.

page 228 note 2 C. A. R. Radford, loc. cit., pl. VII.

page 228 note 3 For a reconstruction see ApSimon, A. M., Trans. Dev. Ass., XC (1958), 216, fig. 34Google Scholar.

page 228 note 4 Fox, A., PPS, XX (1954). 87Google Scholar.