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Concept
Grimspound
Summary
Grimspound is a late Bronze Age settlement, situated on Dartmoor in Devon, England. It consists of a set of 24 hut circles surrounded by a low stone wall. The name was first recorded by the Reverend Richard Polwhele in 1797; it was probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon god of war, Grim (more commonly known as Woden, or Odin).
In 1893 an archaeological dig was carried out by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, which recorded many details of Grimspound as well as, controversially, making a reconstruction of the site.
The site was designate as a scheduled monument in 1928.
The site was first settled in about 1300 BC. The 24 hut circles are surrounded by a massive granite perimeter wall, which may have stood at 1.7 metres in places. The roundhouses, with an average diameter of 3.4 metres, were each built of a double ring of granite slabs with a rubble infill, a technique still used in dry-stone walling. Hut 3 has a surviving porchway, with the two jamb stones still upright, although the lintel has fallen.
There is evidence of human activity: artefacts include pottery, scrapers and pot boilers. Organic remains such as wood and textiles have not survived owing to the acid nature of the soil.
The name Grimspound was first recorded by the Reverend Polwhele in his "Historical Views of Devonshire" in 1793. He called it "The seat of judicature" for the River Dart area, and also surmised that it was "one of the principal temples of the Druids. Other ideas about Grimspound include supposed uses as an Iron Age fort, an encampment for tin miners and even a Phoenician settlement. His interpretation was as a judicial centre for a cantred of the Durius, but his comparison to the Stannary courts show he has explicitly used a modern interpretation and so may be far-fetched ideas Lysons was the first to measure the site, giving an estimate of the walls’ height and thickness as and a measurement of the enclosed area, alongside a description of previous interpretations: a religious site, a ‘british town’ and connected to the Birch Tor mines.
Official source
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