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Rough Tor settlement (North
West)
St Breward |
North Cornwall
NGR: SX 140 813 |
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To the north-west of Roughtor ridge, in open grassy moorland,
is a settlement of over 120 hut circles, small enclosures and
fragments of field systems. Laid out in a broad north-south band,
the majority of the round houses are linked by the stony banks of a
series of six small irregular enclosures. Where entrances are
distinguishable they tend to face downhill, between the south and
west quadrants. Limited excavation has produced evidence for at
least three phases of occupation during the Early and Middle Bronze
Age, representing over 1000 years of settlement in the area.
Considering the absence of extensive tracts of prehistoric fields
with these houses (as seen on other parts of the moor), this
settlement probably represents an economy based on stock rearing,
possibly involving transhumance - the seasonal movements of people
and livestock between lowland and upland territories. The small
enclosures probably functioned as corrals, and there may also be
small garden plots beside some of the houses for growing a few
summer crops.
Fragments of larger, slightly more regular, enclosures can also be
recognised on the hillslopes to the north and east, and these are
cut by a series of straight linear boundaries representing
subsequent changes in land use, possibly related to changes in the
subsistence strategy or economic base of the community. Although
there is no direct evidence here to confirm their precise
relationships, excavations nearby at Stannon have shown that the
main phases of settlement and the boundary banks are broadly
contemporary.
Numerous stone cairns are scattered across the hillslopes and a
small number occur close to or within the settlement enclosures. The
majority of these are thought to be Early Bronze Age burial
monuments, but a few, especially those close to houses, may have
been created during the initial clearance of the area selected for
the settlement, or perhaps represent stones left over from the
construction of houses and enclosure walls. It has been proposed
that some of the smaller cairns were constructed as family shrines
whilst the larger cairns in the area were more community focussed.
It would be expected however, that the majority of the burial cairns
would be Early Bronze Age in origin and the fullest development of
settlement occurred in the Middle Bronze Age. Establishing a reliable
chronology for the complex patterns of archaeological features in
this area presents a major challenge; a programme of small scale
trenching and carbon dating would reap handsome dividends.
By the end of the Middle Bronze Age it appears that permanent
settlement and cultivation on the moorland slopes was no longer
possible; the villages and fields were abandoned and the area
reverted to seasonal grazing. This is thought to be the result of
long-term fluctuations in the climate - the Bronze Age representing
a period of optimum climate when it became possible to grow cereals
at higher altitudes than was previously possible. The clear skies
and cloud-free sunrises and sunsets which accompanied this phase
might have encouraged an interest in the movements of Sun, Moon and
stars which was expressed in the megalithic monuments.
Recent research however is failing to find convincing evidence to
support the climate change model, and archaeologists are beginning
to look for other explanations. Some have pointed to the lack of
evidence for cereal pollens in cores taken from local peat bogs as
evidence that cereals were not in fact being grown on the moor at
all in the Bronze Age, and that the fields were designed for some
other function, presumably related the control of stock.
The settlement lies in open moorland and has unrestricted access.
Sources
Johnson, R. and Rose, P, 1994. Bodmin Moor: An Archaeological Survey.
Vol.1: The human landscape to c1800. English Heritage. ISBN 0953
3796.
Preston-Jones, A. 1994. An Archaeological Assessment of Roughtor,
Bodmin Moor. Historic Environment Service, Cornwall County
Council. |
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Ground & Aerial photographs |
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