| |
|
|
| |
 |
|
Rough Tor settlement (South)
St Breward |
North Cornwall
NGR: SX 146 803 |
| |
 |
| |
On the southern slopes of Roughtor, below the area of dense stony
clitter, there are the remains of a large number of hut circles set
around three of four small enclosures adjoining a larger area of
curvilinear prehistoric field systems partly overlain by a mediæval
field system. The settlement is very similar to, and probably
contemporary with, the more extensive settlement to the north-west
of Roughtor, thought to date to the Early to Middle Bronze Age. The
houses and the small enclosures probably represent an economy based
on stock rearing with perhaps a little cultivation of cereals,
whilst the extensive field system represents a time when farming was
predominant, though the range of crops is unknown, and small numbers
of livestock were grazed on the open moorland. The interpretation of
the features in this area is complicated by the imposition of a
mediæval field system over the hillside, removing some of the
evidence for Bronze Age activity.
The settlement area lies 200 metres to the north of Fernacre stone
circle which is one element in an extensive ritual landscape which
incorporates two other stone circles (Stannon and Louden), numerous
cairns and burial monuments and the Neolithic Tor Enclosure on the
hilltop above.
The creation of the mediæval field system, to the east of the
settlement, presumably involved the removal or redesign of any
prehistoric features in this area. The system is characterised by
its relatively regular, straight-sided, strip fields and associated
clearance cairns. There are also a number of structures incorporated
into the fields that may be associated with this phase of activity,
or related to the earlier activity. A mediæval cross-base was
discovered to the north of the settlement possibly marking an
important trackway running across Roughtor Moor towards Blisland and
there is another cross base nearer to this track further north.
It has generally been assumed that the two observed phases of
development of extensive field systems, in the middle Bronze Age and
the mediæval period, were related to long-term fluctuations in the
climate, these two periods corresponding to the two great optimum
periods when cereals could be grown at this altitude. Recent
research however is failing to find convincing evidence to support
this hypothesis, 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.
Our interpretations of the archaeology of Bodmin Moor are severely
hampered by the sheer richness and complexity of the archaeology
when set against the surprisingly small amount of reliable evidence
from modern excavations, with the scientific sampling and analysis
that accompanies it.
The settlement lies within 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. |
| |
| |
|
|
|
Ground & Aerial photographs |
|
|
