Two neolithic stone circles have been found on Dartmoor, including credibility to the speculation {that a} “sacred arc” of monuments was constructed within the coronary heart of the wild Devon uplands.
One of many circles seems to have comparable options to Stonehenge, whereas the second sits barely outdoors the sweep of the arc and will have served as a gateway utilized by pilgrims travelling to the realm.
The invention of the 2 rings is a results of a lifetime of labor by Alan Endacott, a Devon archaeologist and stained glass artist who in 2007 unearthed the presence of the highest stone circle in southern England, Sittaford on Dartmoor
It was the primary stone circle to be found on the moor for greater than a century and bolstered the sacred arc principle. Moderately than resting on his laurels, Endacott has saved on looking for extra circles and been rewarded with two additional finds.
“It’s been fantastic,” mentioned Endacott, who was joined by a staff of volunteers braving the moor’s typically inclement climate in September and October to work on the websites. “Since Sittaford I’ve been doing a number of systematic searches. You’ve acquired to get off the overwhelmed monitor to seek out something new on Dartmoor.”
Endacott has named one of many monuments the Metheral circle after the hill it stands beneath. It consists of 20 stones, primarily fallen, and the circle measures about 40 metres by 33 metres.
The staff additionally found indicators of an exterior financial institution surrounding the circle, of which Endacott mentioned: “It’s suggestive of a Neolithic henge monument of an analogous type to the Stripple Stones on Bodmin Moor [in Cornwall], the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney and even the sooner section of Stonehenge.
“Individuals moved lengthy distances in that interval, so the individuals who constructed the stone circle at Metheral may also have been to Stonehenge and even probably to Orkney. They travelled fairly extensively; there have been a number of contacts between them with buying and selling and so forth.”
Endacott believes a sacred arc was supposed to ring the excessive floor within the centre of the moor. “Dartmoor would have been very totally different then, there would have been much more forest cowl. So probably they had been markers within the panorama, they recognised the upper floor and needed to form of enclose it for some motive.”
The second newly found circle sits simply north of what Endacott believes is the sweep of the sacred arc at a outstanding place referred to as Irishman’s Wall. Additionally discovered there was a collapsed dolmen that Endacott has named “the fallen brother dolmen” as a tribute to these from Dartmoor communities who died on the planet wars.
It doesn’t look like a part of the arc. “However possibly it was an entrance level [to the arc] from the north,” he mentioned.
Endacott, 66, has been looking for the circles on Dartmoor because the Nineteen Seventies and has “contenders” for different circles that will assist fill in gaps within the ring.
He mentioned: “These excavations exceeded my expectations and introduced new proof to gentle that may assist with our understanding, however inevitably they’ve additionally raised extra questions on why they had been constructed. There are positively different websites that I need to observe up on. We received’t be stopping any time quickly.”
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