Reasons for Designation
Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been
recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The
Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the
best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of
prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human
exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The
well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field
systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains
provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land
use through time. Round cairns are funerary monuments covering single or
multiple burials and dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They were
constructed as mounds of earth and stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter
but usually considerably smaller; a kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds
the edges of the mound. Burials were placed in small pits, or on occasion
within a box-like structure of stone slabs called a cist, let into the old
ground surface or dug into the body of the cairn. Round cairns can occur as
isolated monuments, in small groups or in larger cemeteries. Their
considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provides
important information on the diversity of beliefs, burial practices and social
organisation in the Bronze Age. They are particularly representative of their
period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered
worthy of preservation.
These round cairns on Twelve Men's Moor have survived well despite the limited
actions of stone-robbers and they will retain many original features including
burial deposits. The south-eastern cairn in particular displays a good range
of surviving features. Their proximity to broadly contemporary burial
monuments of differing types and to Prehistoric field systems and settlement
sites demonstrates well the diversity of funerary practices and the
organisation of land use during the Bronze Age.
Details
The monument comprises two small Prehistoric round cairns, situated near other
broadly contemporary cairns, field systems and settlement sites on the western
slope of the Twelve Men's Moor between Kilmar Tor and Trewortha Tor on eastern
Bodmin Moor.
These cairns are separated by a gap of 2.5m on a NW-SE axis. The SE cairn
survives as a turf-covered mound of heaped rubble, 6m in diameter and up to
0.7m high. Occasional edge-set kerb slabs, up to 0.4m high, are visible
around the perimeter of the cairn. Within the mound is a circular central
hollow, 3m in diameter and 0.3m deep, whose well-defined outer edge shows the
occasional edge-set stones of an inner kerb. A small area of disturbance by
stone robbers, limited to the NW edge of the central area, has displaced two
large stone slabs, measuring 0.75m by 0.5m and 0.6m by 0.4m respectively.
These are typical of the lining slabs of box-like structures called cists,
which contained burials and which occur in several similar cairns on Bodmin
Moor.
The NW cairn has a similarly turf-covered, heaped rubble mound, 5.5m in
diameter and 0.5m high. Its southern and western sectors show a distinct
outer bank 2m wide, with two leaning edge-set slabs from a kerb, but much of
its remaining upper surface contains irregular hollows up to 0.25m deep
resulting from early stone robbing episodes. The NE sides of the two cairns
are linked by a low, slightly curving, rubble wall, surviving to a maximum
1.25m wide and 0.4m high, merging with cairns at each end.
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.
