Multiple ring-ditch at Mount Pleasant, Denton

Reasons for Designation

Multiple ring-ditches are circular ditched enclosures which comprise several circuits of ditches. They are ritual and/or funerary monuments dating to the Later Neolithic or early Bronze Age periods; the few available radiocarbon dates suggest that most were constructed between 2400 and 2000 BC. In some cases the ditch surrounds a central burial in a pit, while in others there is no burial but evidence instead of the deliberate placement of unusual or exotic artefacts into the ground. The importance attached by the users of this type of monument is shown by their frequent reuse over long periods of time, reuse which often involved the cleaning out of existing ditches or the addition of further circuits of ditch. Multiple ring-ditches are rare nationally, but are distributed widely-- examples are known in Wales as well as the South Midlands and Central Southern England. The potential in the example at Denton for yielding evidence of changes both in burial practices and in a range of artefact types, due to its likely longevity of use, remains considerable despite the limited damage caused by agricultural activities.

Details

Situated on sloping ground just to the NW of the summit of Mount Pleasant, Denton, are the ploughed remains of a circular multiple ring-ditch. The monument includes three concentric ditches and the space within each of them. The ditches were detected by aerial photography in 1969. The largest of the circular ditches is some 50m in diameter, the middle one 30m and the innermost one 20m in diameter. The ditches show up in ideal conditions as darker rings in the chalk-rich soil. Comparison with the similar excavated example at Irthlingborough in Northamptonshire suggests that the remains are those of a funerary or other ritual monument dating from the Late Neolithic period. One or more burial pits are considered likely to survive at the centre of the monument.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

12800

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
SMR No. TQ 40 SE 55,
15-FEB-1990 Finds not collected, Brown, A, 15-Feb-1990, (1990)
Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey AP 69:100:95, (1969)

End of official list entry

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