Cist 430m ESE of Yealm Steps

Reasons for Designation

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and, because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country. The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time. Cists are small rectangular stone structures used for burial purposes and date to the Bronze Age. On Dartmoor they are made up of regular stone slabs forming a box-like structure sometimes topped by a larger coverstone. Short cists survive as free-standing monuments, with no enclosing stone and earth cairn. On Dartmoor cists are also associated with cairns, ring cairns and cairnfield groups, but these free-standing examples form a separate group in their own right. Their longevity, having been in use for a millennium or so, provides insight into the range of ceremonial and ritual practices of the contemporary farming communities. The Dartmoor examples provide one of the best preserved and most dense concentrations of this class of monument in south-western Britain and, as such, a high proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The cist 430m ESE of Yealm Steps survives comparatively well and lies in close proximity to a large, broadly contemporary settlement.

Details

This monument includes a stone cist situated on the eastern edge of a large stone hut circle settlement, lying on a south-facing slope overlooking the valley of the River Yealm. The cist survives as a 0.68m long and 0.22m wide rectangular area defined on the north and west by upright stone slabs standing up to 0.6m high and on the east by a two small stones protruding through the turf. There is no trace of a cairn mound, but the old ground surface beneath this may survive as a buried feature.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

24103

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
MPP fieldwork by S. Gerrard,
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX66SW31,

End of official list entry

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