Radiocarbon dating on highest circle ever found in southern England suggests stones were upright around 4,000 years ago

© Dartmoor National Park

The first stone circle to be discovered on Dartmoor for more than a century fits with the pattern of a “sacred” arc of stones discovered along the north-eastern edge of the National Park, according to archaeologists who say the relics illustrate the level of planning and liaisons among communities at the site between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.Set 525 metres above sea level, the highest stone circle in southern England is the second largest on Dartmoor, extending to a diameter of 34 metres with panoramic views. Consisting of 30 recumbent stones and one lying in a gap just outside the formation, the upright circle would have been “very impressive”, dominating the landscape and resembling the Grey Wethers double stone circle, close to the nearby Fernworthy Forest.“Some preliminary radiocarbon dating has already taken place on soil samples taken from directly beneath two of the stones,” says Jane Marchand, a Senior Archaeologist for the Dartmoor National Park, who has been analysing a circle detected by a geophysical survey carried out in a project exploring the history of one of Britain’s most spectacular archaeological areas.“These are the first radiocarbon determinations from a Dartmoor stone circle. The dates have produced very similar results and calibrate to the end of the third millennium BC, 4,000 years ago. This indicates the date by which the stones had fallen.“Its discovery is providing an opportunity for investigation using the very latest archaeological scientific methods to provide long-awaited insights into the chronology, construction and the purpose of these most elusive and iconic of Dartmoor’s prehistoric monuments.”The uniformly-sized stones are thought to have been carefully chosen fromduring the Neolithic or early Bronze Age. Preliminary results have revealed a wide ditch running in a linear fashion just beyond the eastern side of the circle.