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.
Details
The monument comprises a Prehistoric round cairn, the central cairn of a
widely spaced SSE-NNW linear group of three round cairns, situated near other
broadly contemporary cairns, field systems and settlement sites on the wide
saddle of Twelve Men's Moor between Kilmar Tor and the Trewortha Tor-Hawkstor
ridge on eastern Bodmin Moor.
The cairn survives as a mound of heaped rubble, 9m in diameter and up to 0.8m
high. Stone-robbing has removed part of the mound's northern half, leaving
its lower rubble content intact. The SE half of the cairn remains an intact
and well-consolidated mound. Almost at the centre of the cairn is a
rectangular box-like structure called a cist, formed of four vertical stone
slabs, within which a burial would have been deposited. The cist measures
0.9m internally on its NE-SW long axis by 0.6m wide and is 0.4m deep. There
is no evidence for a covering slab. The cist has been revealed in the
southern face of the stone-robbed area, and lies embedded in the undisturbed
part of the mound.
This cairn is situated 175m NNW of the southern cairn in the linear group and
75m south of its northern cairn. Each of these cairns contains a cist.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
15098
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Books and journals Other
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official list entry
