EARLY MAN 



stone kept in a suitable position by means of trigger stones. The remains of the urn are highly 

 ornamented. The pottery is dark and friable, and contains but little clay. For section of 

 cairn from east to west see fig. 15. There was no surrounding stone circle. 



Langstone Moor. — Three small cairns lying close to the stone circle on Langstone Moor 

 were discovered in 1897, and explored the same year. Two gave no sign of interments, not even a 



Section £ to W of ruined Cairn Huraton Ridge, Diameter of cairn z6 feet, leaning stone 30 inches long, z inches wide at top, 

 6 inches at bottom. At 14 inches diameter, 14 inches deep. This was filled with charcoal. 



Fig. 15. — Section of Cairn, Hurston Ridge 



trace of charcoal ; but the third, with a diameter of 1 1 ft. and with the centre of the cairn i ft. above 

 the level of the ground, contained a small kistvaen, which was packed with ' calm ' containing small 

 pieces of wood charcoal and a little bone ash. It did not contain any pottery or implements. The 

 bottom of the kistvaen was paved. There were traces of a surrounding stone circle. This is the 

 smallest and best-made kistvaen yet found on Dartmoor, and with the consent of his Grace the Duke 

 of Bedford it has been removed from the cairn (where it would have lain invisible) to the Municipal 

 Museum at Plymouth. It is only 21 in. long, 13 in. wide, and 14 in. deep (see fig. 16). 



Hameldon (O. S. c, SW). — One of the barrows on Hameldon was explored in or about the 

 year 1872 by the late Mr. Spence Bate, F.R.S. (For section see fig 18.) 



The main portion of the barrow was of earth, with a small central cairn and margins of stone. 

 The exploration yielded portions of a bronze dagger (see fig, 19 and fig, 2 on same), an amber 

 pommel ornamented with gold pins (probably the pommel of the hilt of this dagger), and some burnt 

 bones, which were undoubtedly human. 



Kistvaen on Lakehead Hill (O. S. xcix, SW). — A small kist denuded of its covering of 

 stones or earth. It had previously been rifled, but the writer found on re-examination in 1897 

 fragments of pottery and three finely-worked and apparently unused scrapers, and the same number 

 of knives, all of flint. These were embedded in the floor of the kist close to the stones, and had 

 escaped the attention of the previous explorers (see fig. 17). 



Kistvaen in Archerton Newtake (O. S. xcix, SW). — A small irregularly shaped kist close 

 to and on the south side of the Powder Mills leat and about 350 yds. due south of Archerton House. 

 It stands in the centre of a small 

 wasted cairn with a present diameter 

 of 14 ft. The bottom of the kist 

 contained a small pit sunk below 

 this level. On clearing this out 

 some wood charcoal was observed 

 together with a worked flint flake. 

 A thorough search under the eastern 

 side stone resulted in the discovery 

 of an archer's wrist-guard, fashioned 

 from a fine gritty stone and rubbed 

 down perfectly smooth. It is per- 

 forated at each corner ; two of the 

 holes on the reverse side are counter- 

 sunk to accommodate the knots of 

 the thongs which bound the guard 

 to the wrist. The obverse is slightly 

 convex and the reverse concave. 



These bracers or guards are not 

 uncommonly found in barrows and 

 kistvaens, mostly of the Bronze Age. 

 Examples have been furnished by 

 Scotland, Denmark, and Germany, 

 and in several counties of England, 

 both in stone and bone. 



Cairn in Stannon Bottom, 

 Post Bridge. — In the enclosure 



LANGSTONE MOOR 



/f/sri/A/TA/ .--■"■•. 



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""11!^^--^^ N 



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r .r-^."^ '^\ \ \ 



f --"'^'^j'-' \ \ » 



I J^ — ."t \ \ * 



\ r)t ' ^- \ \ • 



\ \ '■ \\ \ 



\ \ X \ \ • 





\ \ '*• \ '■ A '• 





« 



'f \ \ \ '^r \ \ \ 



' 



\ ' \ ^ \ \ '• 





^ ''• \ > \ ^ \ 1 '■ 





I \ \ .,A \ \) \ 





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^ \ \ ^1 ^^' J '• 





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Fig. 16. 

 361 



-Plan of Kistvaen, Langstone Moor 



46 



