Embanked pit alignment 130m south and 310m SSE of Jingleby House

Reasons for Designation

A pit alignment is a linear arrangement of fairly closely-spaced circular or rectangular holes or pits over 1m in diameter. Some examples are several kilometres long and some occur as part of a more complex linear earthwork including linear ditches, slots, palisades and linear banks. Once dug, the pits were left as open features which eroded and silted up over a period of time. Nearly all pit alignments have been discovered from aerial photography and survive as cropmarks or soil marks. They are largely found in river valleys in central and northern England but they are also common on the Yorkshire Wolds and are found in smaller numbers on other light, freely draining soils. Pit alignments probably formed boundaries. Where excavated they usually appear to be prehistoric in date, although examples are also known from the Roman period. All examples surviving as earthworks are considered to merit protection. On the North York Moors several pit alignments have been identified with surviving earthworks. These examples have been found to have a low bank on either side of the line of pits and have been termed embanked pit alignments (EPA). The EPA 130m south and 310m SSE of Jingleby House is in a good state of preservation. Despite limited disturbance, significant information about the date and original form of the monument will be preserved. Important environmental evidence will survive within the waterlogged pit fills and evidence for earlier land use will survive beneath the banks. The eastern Tabular Hills is an area which has many networks of prehistoric land boundaries. These are thought to represent systems of territorial land division which were constructed to augment natural divisions of the landscape by river valleys and watersheds. The Dalby Forest and Scamridge areas have a particular concentration which is thought to have originated in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, earlier than most other prehistoric boundary systems on the Tabular Hills. The networks within this concentration, and many of their component boundaries, are notably complex and are of considerable importance for understanding the development of later prehistoric society in eastern Yorkshire. This EPA is part of the system of boundaries dividing the area between Troutsdale in the south and the scarp edge of the Tabular Hills in the north. It lies close to a complex of similar EPAs which have been identified through survey work as the earliest boundaries in this area. The relationships of this monument with these boundaries and with the burial monuments in the landscape surrounding them are important for understanding the chronological development of land division during the later prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes a pit alignment which is situated in Dalby Forest, towards the northern edge of the Tabular Hills. The alignment runs SSE to NNW between the heads of Troutsdale and Worry Gill, curving more to the north west at the northern end. It is divided into two parts by the Dalby Forest Drive which cuts across it towards its northern end; the monument therefore has two areas of protection. The pit alignment is of the type known as an embanked pit alignment. It has a line of regularly-spaced and well-defined sub-circular pits, which are flanked by two parallel banks of earth and stone. The pits average 2m in diameter and 0.3m-0.5m in depth, but a few have eroded up to 3.5m in diameter and up to 2.2m in depth. They are spaced 3m-4m apart, centre to centre. Towards the southern end of the pit alignment, most of the pits are waterlogged. The banks each have a shallow rounded profile and are 2m-3m wide. They stand up to 0.7m high, although they are no more than 0.3m high in places where they have been damaged by forestry activities. The earthworks have an overall maximum diameter of 10m. The pit alignment is truncated at the northern and southern ends by an old footpath and a modern trackway respectively. The northern part is also breached by an unsurfaced forestry track. There is a further breach to the immediate south of the Dalby Forest Drive. The monument forms part of a network of prehistoric linear boundaries which are surrounded by many other prehistoric monuments, particularly burials.

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:

34683

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Spratt, D A, Linear Earthworks of the Tabular Hills: North East Yorkshire, (1989), 34-41
Northern Archaeological Associates, , North York Moors Forest Survey Phase Two, (1996)

Other
Title: Ordnance Survey 2nd Edition 25" sheet 76/11 Source Date: 1912 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
English Heritage, Prehistoric embanked pit alignments on Ebberston Low Moor, (1999)

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