LEGIS TOR 



SC^LE. 



HUT 2 



EARLY MAN 



in the Municipal Museum at Plymouth. The same hut yielded much charcoal, numerous cooking 

 stones, a rubber stone, and an oval sparry river-pebble that had both its ends bruised and broken 

 oy use. 



.„ ■^u°'^T5'^°^iP'^' '^''i' SE).— There is an important series of hut circles and enclosures lying 



Zm V w "■ fT..T 'u' 'Tu^ '^°P^ °^ ^'g'^ ^°'- M^"y °f these were explored in 1895-6 

 by Mr. R. Hansford Worth. The remains are very extensive, consisting of a series of irregularly- 

 shaped enclosures, with lesser boundaries subdividing in rectangular or sub-rectangular patches, and 

 a number of hut circles of varymg dimensions, mostly within the enclosures. An evident settlement 

 or a pastoral people. A de- 

 scription of hut No. 2 will 

 suffice as an illustration of these 

 prehistoric dwellings (see fig. 5). 

 This hut circle measures 

 along its least internal diameter 

 about 1 2^ ft., and along its great- 

 est internal diameter, at right 

 angles to the last, about 13^ ft. 

 It has a well-defined entrance 

 facing almost due south. A 

 considerable portion of its floor 

 was found to be paved with flat 

 granite stones. There was a 

 hearth-stone at or near the 

 centre, cracked as if by fire, and 

 a cooking or fire hole filled 

 with ashes was found imme- 

 diately adjacent to the hearth- 

 stone and to the north of it. 

 At the entrance to this circle 

 there were two steps leading 

 down from the outer ground 

 level. The north-western half 

 of the floor was unpaved, and 

 consisted of natural hard ' calm ' 

 or sub-soil. 



The raised hearth was the 

 first indication of human habi- 

 tation. Immediately over the 

 actual floor of the hut were 

 found some thirty rounded cook- 

 ing-stones, mainly of elvan rock, 

 many of which had been splin- 

 tered by the action of fire. One 

 flint flake was found in the soil 

 within a few inches of the floor. 

 The cooking or fire hole 

 to the north of the hearth was 

 of a curved oval or kidney 

 shape, being very nearly 2 ft. in 

 length and about 10 in. in 

 breadth. It was found full of 

 charcoal and ash. On the 

 western side of the entrance, 

 from a pit sunk below the Fig. J. — Plan of Hut a with Section of Entrance 



general level of the floor, was 



excavated a quantity of rough pottery, being fragments of a pot, the exterior of which was of a red 

 colour, and the interior had been blackened by charred organic matter. From all appearance this 

 pot had been crushed where found by the weight of some of the wall stones which had fallen within 

 the circle. From the point near the hearth a broken fired clay spindle-whorl was excavated from the 

 joint between two of the paving-stones, the only example yet found in a Dartmoor hut circle 



Another hut circle in this group yielded a broken cooking-pot of unornamented pottery which 

 was found set in the 'calm ' below the level of the floor. In diameter it measured 10 in. at its 

 widest point. Its total depth, including the rim, which was found inside it, was a little over 

 I 353 45 



N 



SELCTION or ENTRANCE 



iXaAA«J<r^dLUjv^ 



SCALE, i, rs TO I la 



