Dartmoor tomb treasure hoard uncovered by archaeologists

Blackleaf

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Archaeologists from around the UK have been examining a hoard of treasures unearthed in a 4,000-year-old tomb on Dartmoor.

Prehistoric jewellery, animal pelts and beads made of amber were among the finds about two years ago in the burial chamber.

The chamber, known as a cist, was found on Whitehorse Hill, near Chagford in Devon.

Dartmoor National Park archaeologists have called it the most important ancient find on the moor.

Dartmoor tomb treasure hoard uncovered by archaeologists

BBC News
7 February 2014


The chamber, known as a cist, was found on Whitehorse Hill, near Chagford



Archaeologists from around the UK have been examining a hoard of treasures unearthed in a 4,000-year-old tomb on Dartmoor.

Prehistoric jewellery, animal pelts and beads made of amber were among the finds about two years ago in the burial chamber.

The chamber, known as a cist, was found on Whitehorse Hill, near Chagford.

Dartmoor National Park archaeologists have called it the most important ancient find on the moor.

When they levered off the chamber's lid they discovered an intact burial of cremated remains.


The coiled bag has been specially cleaned

It was wrapped in an animal pelt, containing a delicate bracelet studded with tin beads, a textile fragment with detailed leather fringing and a unique coiled bag.

Jane Marchand, Dartmoor National Park's chief archaeologist, said: "Visibly it's not as impressive as Stonehenge, but archaeologically it's just as important.

"It was incredibly exciting to lift the lid and a bead fell out."

At the Wiltshire Conservation Lab, the team had the delicate task of trying to reveal the secrets of the coiled bag containing rare beads.

Just eight beads have been found on Dartmoor in the last 100 years.


The team is awaiting DNA results to identify what animal the pelt came from

Helen Williams, a conservator at the lab, said: "The level of preservation we have got is amazing.

"We're awaiting DNA results on the pelt so we can identify what animal it might have come from.

"Amazing doesn't really do them justice. It's the most extraordinary assortment of finds with tin beads and wooden ear studs."

Archaeologists say the discovery also points to the earliest evidence of tin found in the South West.

Mystery of the Moor, a BBC Inside Out South West programme, is on BBC One on Friday at 19.30 GMT.

BBC News - Dartmoor tomb treasure hoard uncovered by archaeologists
 

damngrumpy

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Mar 16, 2005
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kelowna bc
It is always like finding gold when things like this are discovered in fact its
better than gold, we get to see what our ancient history was really like.
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
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kelowna bc
They also found a dated Prime Minister Harper's Economic Policy that led
to the average guy having to wear the animal skin
 

Blackleaf

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It is always like finding gold when things like this are discovered in fact its
better than gold, we get to see what our ancient history was really like.



That's it.

Things like clothing and bags, which have survived after thousands of years, are much more precious and interesting than gold, in my opinion. These things bring to life the everyday lives of ordinary people at that time.

Can't be, the British had no domestic animals till late in the fifteenth century.


The people of the British Isles have been using domesticated animals since at least the start of the Neolithic Period - the era when hunting and foraging, the Mesolithic, gave way to farming - around 5000BC, around 3000 years before the people who made these Dartmoor artefacts lived.

But there is evidence that even Mesolithic British hunters 'managed' or tended their quarry. They would make clearings in woodland - Britain back then was almost completely forested - around sources of drinking water, and probably made efforts to see that the herds of deer and other animals they hunted were not over-exploited.

The first British farmers, around 5000 BC, brought the ancestors of cattle, sheep and goats with them from the continent (farming spread into Eastern Europe and then slowly moved westwards through Europe over thousands of years until it reached the British Isles). Domestic pigs were bred from wild boar, which lived in the woods of Britain.

Neolithic British farmers also kept domesticated dogs, which were bred from wolves. It is probable that the earliest domesticated livestock were allowed to wander, maybe tended by a few herders.

Sheep, goats and cattle are fond of leaves and bark, and pigs snuffle around roots. These domestic animals may have played a major role in clearing away the huge areas of dense forest that covered most of lowland Britain.


Source: BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Overview: From Neolithic to Bronze Age, 8000 - 800 BC
 
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