Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T00:13:25.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bronze Age Settlement on the East Moors of the Peak District of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

John Barnatt
John Barnatt*
Affiliation:
115A Spring Gardens, Buxton, Derbyshire
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Bronze Age remains on the East Moors of the Peak District are amongst the most extensive in the country. This paper discusses their interpretation and examines the pattern of man's exploitation of the region at this period. The distribution of the remains is far from random and concentrates on areas which are the most suitable for agriculture. Prolonged mixed farming in the most favourable areas is argued for. Similar topographic characteristics throughout the area enable estimates to be made of the original levels of exploitation in the region as a whole and the degree to which field evidence has been destroyed. The pattern of settlement suggests the Bronze Age farmers lived in small groups, each exploiting its own relatively self-contained area of upland and each having a handful of ceremonial monuments. There is no evidence for a complex social hierarchy reflected by monuments or settlement patterns. Comparisons are made between the East Moor sites and those in other regions. These suggest varying levels of social organization and types of exploitation in the Bronze Age and illustrate the value of regional studies to highlight the diversity of Bronze Age lifestyle throughout Britain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , 1987 , pp. 393 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnatt, J., 1982. Prehistoric Cornwall: the Ceremonial Monuments. Turnstone Press.Google Scholar
Barnatt, J., 1986. ‘Bronze Age remains on the East Moors of the Peak District’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 106, 18–101.Google Scholar
Barnatt, J., forthcoming. The Stone Circles and Ringcairns of the Peak District.Google Scholar
Barnatt, J., in prep. ‘The siting of Bronze Age ceremonial monuments on the East Moors of the Peak District’.Google Scholar
Barnatt, J. Beswick, P. and Roberts, D., in prep. ‘Trial excavations on Big Moor, Derbyshire’.Google Scholar
Barnatt, J. and Myers, A., in prep. ‘The distribution of lithic scatters in the Peak District: a sampling experiment to test variability within the region’.Google Scholar
Beswick, P. and Merrills, D., 1983. ‘L. H. Butcher's survey of early settlements and fields in the southern Pennines’, Trans. Hunter Archaeol. Soc. 12, 16–50.Google Scholar
Bowen, H. C. and Fowler, P. J. (eds), 1978. Early Land Allotment in the British Isles: a Survey of Recent Work. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 48. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R. 1978a. The Prehistoric Settlement of Britain. London Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1978b. ‘Prehistoric field systems in Britain and north-west Europe; a review of some recent work’, World Archaeol. 9, 265–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R., 1984. The Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain. London and New York.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. and Ellison, A., 1975. Rams Hill; a Bronze Age Defended Enclosure and its Landscape. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 19. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R. and Hart, C. R., 1983. ‘Prehistoric settlement in the Peak District during the third and second millennia b.c; a preliminary analysis in the light of recent fieldwork,’ Proc. Prehist. Soc. 49, 177–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R. and Richards, J., 1978. ‘Prehistoric fields and Boundaries on the Berkshire Downs’, in Bowen, H. C. and Fowler, P. J. (eds), 53–60.Google Scholar
Brisbane, M. and Clews, S., 1979. ‘The East Moor field systems, Altarnun, and North Hill, Bodmin Moor’, Cornish Archaeol. 18, 33–56.Google Scholar
Coggins, D., 1985. ‘Settlement and farming in Upper Teesdale’, in Spratt, and Burgess, 1985, 163–75.Google Scholar
Coggins, D. and Fairless, E. J., 1983. ‘The bronze age settlement site at Bracken Rigg, Upper Teesdale, Co. Durham’, Durham Archaeol. J. 1, 5–21.Google Scholar
Feacham, R. W., 1973. ‘Ancient agriculture in the highland of Britain’, Proc. Prehist. 39, 332–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, A., 1971. ‘Bronze age agriculture on the marginal lands of northeast Yorkshire’, Agr. Hist. Rev. 19, 1–24.Google Scholar
Fleming, A., 1978. ‘The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor, part 1: South Dartmoor’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 44, 97–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, A., 1979. ‘The Dartmoor reaves: boundary patterns and behaviour patterns in the second millennium b.c.’, Proc. Devon Archaeol. Soc. 37, 115–31.Google Scholar
Fleming, A., 1980. ‘The cairnfields of northwest Dartmoor’, Proc. Devon Archaeol. Soc. 38, 9–12.Google Scholar
Fleming, A., 1983. ‘The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor, part 2: North and East Dartmoor’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 49, 195–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, A., 1985. ‘Upland settlement in Britain: the second millennium B.C. and after’, in Spratt, and Burgess, 1985, 377–81.Google Scholar
Fowler, P. J., 1981. ‘Wildscape to landscape’, in Mercer, R. J. (ed.), Farming Practice in British Prehistory, 9–54. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Fowler, P. J., 1983. The Farming of Prehistoric Britain. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Garton, D., 1987. ‘Buxton’, Current Archaeol. 103, 250–52.Google Scholar
Garton, D. and Beswick, P., 1983. ‘The survey and excavation of a neolithic settlement area at Mount Pleasant, Kenslow’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 103, 7–40.Google Scholar
Graham, A., 1957. ‘Cairnfields in Scotland’, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland 90, 7–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J., 1984. ‘A preliminary survey of hut circles and field systems in SE Perthshire’, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland 114, 199–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, C. R., 1981. The North Derbyshire Archaeological Survey. Chesterfield.Google Scholar
Hawke-Smith, C. F., 1979. Man—Land Relationships in Prehistoric Britain. The Dove-Derwent Interfluve, Derbyshire. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 64. Oxford.Google Scholar
Hawke-Smith, C. F., 1981. ‘Land use, burial practice and territories in the Peak District c 2000–1000 b.c.’, in Barker, G. (ed.), Prehistoric Communities in Northern England, 57–72. Sheffield.Google Scholar
Heathcote, J. P., 1930. ‘Excavations at barrows on Stanton Moor’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 51, 1–44.Google Scholar
Heathcote, J. P., 1936. ‘Further excavations on Stanton Moor’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 57, 21–42.Google Scholar
Heathcote, J. P., 1939a. ‘Excavations on Stanton Moor’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 60, 105–15.Google Scholar
Heathcote, J. P., 1939b. ‘Excavations at Doll Tor stone circle, Stanton Moor’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 60, 116–25.Google Scholar
Heathcote, J. P., 1954. ‘Excavations on Stanton Moor’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 74, 128–33.Google Scholar
Henderson, A. H., 1963. ‘Barrow no. 9, Ramsley Moor’, Trans. Hunter Archaeol. Soc. 8, 71–76.Google Scholar
Hicks, S. P., 1971. ‘Pollen-analytical evidence for the effect of prehistoric agriculture on the vegetation of N. Derbyshire’, New Phyt. 70, 647–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, S. P., 1972. ‘The impact of man on the East Moor of Derbyshire from mesolithic times’, Archaeol. J. 129, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jobey, G., 1981a. ‘Green Knowe unenclosed platform settlement and Harehope Cairn, Pebbleshire’, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland 110, 72–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jobey, G., 1981b. ‘Groups of small cairns and the excavation of a cairnfield on Millstone Hill, Northumberland’, Archaeologia Aeliana 9, 23–44.Google Scholar
Jobey, G., 1983. ‘Excavations of an unenclosed settlement on Standrop Rigg, Northumberland and some problems related to similar settlements between Tyne and Forth’, Archaeologia Aeliana 11, 1–21.Google Scholar
Jobey, G., 1985. ‘The enclosed settlements of Tyne-Forth: a summary’, in Spratt, and Burgess, 1985, 177–94.Google Scholar
Johnson, N., 1980. ‘Later Bronze Age settlement in the south-west’, in Barrett, J. and Bradley, R. (eds), Settlement and Society in the British Later Bronze Age, 141–80. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 83. Oxford.Google Scholar
King, A., 1985. ‘Prehistoric settlement and land use in Craven, North Yorkshire’, in Spratt, and Burgess, 1985, 117–34.Google Scholar
Laurie, T., 1985. ‘Early land division and settlement in Swaledale and on the eastern approaches to the Stainmore Pass over the North Pennines’, in Spratt, and Burgess, 1985, 135–62.Google Scholar
Leech, R. H., 1983. ‘Settlements and groups of small cairns on Birkby and Birker Fells, Eskdale, Cumbria. Survey undertaken in 1982’, Trans. Cumberland Westmorland Archaeol. Antiq. Soc. 83, 15–23.Google Scholar
Lewis, G. D., 1966. ‘Some radiocarbon dates for the Peak District’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 86, 115–16.Google Scholar
Machin, M. L., 1971. ‘Further excavations of the enclosure at Swine Sty, Big Moor, Baslow’, Trans. Hunter Archaeol. Soc. 10, 5–13.Google Scholar
Machin, M. L. and Beswick, P. 1975. ‘Further excavations of the enclosure at Swine Sty, Big Moor, Baslow, and a report on the shale industry at Swine Sty’, Trans. Hunter Archaeol. Soc. 10, 204–11.Google Scholar
Marsden, B. M., 1977. The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire (privately published).Google Scholar
Mercer, R. J. (ed.) 1981a. Farming Practice in British Prehistory. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Mercer, R. J., 1970. ‘The excavation of a Bronze Age hutcircle settlement, Stannon Down, St. Brewar, Cornwall, 1968’, Cornish Archaeol. 9, 17–46.Google Scholar
Mercer, R.J., 1981. Archaeological Field Survey in Northern Scotland, Vol. II, 1980–81. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. M., 1978. Excavations at Fengate, Peterborough, England: the Second Report. Royal Ontario Museum Archaeological Monograph No. 5. Toronto.Google Scholar
Radley, J., 1966. ‘A Bronze Age ringwork on Totley Moor and other Bronze Age ringworks in the Pennines’, Archaeol. J. 123, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radley, J., 1969. ‘A triple cairn and a rectangular cairn of the bronze age on Beeley Moor’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 89, 1–17.Google Scholar
R.C.A.H.M. Scotland, 1957. Selkirkshire Inventory. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
R.C.A.H.M. Scotland, 1967. Peebleshire Inventory. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
R.C.A.H.M. Scotland, 1976. Lanarkshire Inventory. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
R.C.A.H.M. Wales, 1956. Caernarvonshire Inventory, vol. 1, East. Cardiff.Google Scholar
R.C.A.H.M. Wales, 1964. Caernarvonshire Inventory, vol. 2, West. Cardiff.Google Scholar
R.C.A.H.M. Wales, 1976. Glamorgan Inventory, vol. 1. Cardiff.Google Scholar
Richards, J., 1984. ‘The development of the neolithic landscape in the environs of Stonehenge’, in Bradley, R. and Gardiner, J. (eds), Neolithic Studies, 177–88. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 133. Oxford.Google Scholar
Richardson, G. G. S. and Preston, F. L., 1969. ‘Excavations at Swine Sty, Big Moor, Baslow’, Trans. Hunter Archeol. Soc. 9, 261–63.Google Scholar
Riley, D. N., 1966. ‘An early Bronze Age cairn on Harland Edge, Beeley Moor, Derbyshire’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 86, 31–53.Google Scholar
Riley, D. N., 1981. ‘Barrow no. 1 on Ramsley Moor, Holmesfield, North East Derbyshire’, Trans. Hunter Archaeol. Soc. 11, 1–13.Google Scholar
Smith, K., Coppen, J., Wainwright, G. J. and Becket, S., 1981. ‘The Shaugh Moor project: third report — settlement and environmental investigations’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 47, 205–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spratt, D. (ed.), 1982. Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology of North-East Yorkshire. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 104. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spratt, D. and Burgess, C. (eds), 1985. Upland Settlement in Britain. The Second Millennium B.C. and After. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser 143. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallis, J. H, 1966. ‘A pollen sample from Stanton Moor’, Archaeol. J. 123, 24–25.Google Scholar
Vine, P. M., 1982. The Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures of the Middle and Upper Trent Basin. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 105. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yates, M.J., 1984. ‘Groups of small cairns in northern Britain — a view from SW Scotland,’ Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland 114, 217–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar