{"id":680,"date":"2014-09-11T14:05:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T13:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/?p=680"},"modified":"2017-06-22T13:03:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T12:03:33","slug":"bears-and-beads-on-whitehorse-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/latest-news\/bears-and-beads-on-whitehorse-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears and Beads on Whitehorse Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The amazing array of finds from a Bronze Age burial on Whitehorse Hill on Dartmoor will be on display at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery from 13<sup>th<\/sup> September \u2013 13th December 2014.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/The-cist-under-excavation-\u00a9-Dartmoor-National-Park-Authority.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-681\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/The-cist-under-excavation-\u00a9-Dartmoor-National-Park-Authority-240x180.jpg\" alt=\"The cist under excavation \u00a9 Dartmoor National Park Authority\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/The-cist-under-excavation-\u00a9-Dartmoor-National-Park-Authority-240x180.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/The-cist-under-excavation-\u00a9-Dartmoor-National-Park-Authority-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/The-cist-under-excavation-\u00a9-Dartmoor-National-Park-Authority.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a>The excavation of a Bronze Age cist, a small stone-built coffin on Whitehorse Hill on Dartmoor has revealed a remarkable assemblage of prehistoric grave goods including a bear skin, a woven bag, more than 200 beads and a braided armlet with tin rivets.\u00a0 This is not only the most important assemblage to be discovered on Dartmoor but the finds, particularly the organic remains which were found to be in an exceptional state of preservation, are of national and international importance.\u00a0 The analysis and conservation of these artefacts, which was part-funded by Devon County Council, is now nearly complete and they are shortly to form part of a major new exhibition at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery from 13<sup>th<\/sup> September \u2013 13th December 13 2014.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/Beads-and-ear-studs.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/Beads-and-ear-studs-240x119.png\" alt=\"Beads and ear studs, just part of the most important assemblage of prehistoric grave goods to be found on Dartmoor (Photo. Gary Young \u00a9 Dartmoor National Park Authority\" width=\"240\" height=\"119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/Beads-and-ear-studs-240x119.png 240w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/Beads-and-ear-studs-800x397.png 800w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/09\/Beads-and-ear-studs.png 927w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a>The cist was excavated in 2011 as the peat around it was drying out and shrinking leaving the cist in danger of collapse; the first excavation of a burial site on Dartmoor for 100 years.\u00a0 Despite the fact that the end stone had already fallen out an intact cremation burial with its accompanying artefacts was found inside.<\/p>\n<p>The cremation is that of a young person, aged between about 15 and 25 and the nature of the grave goods suggests that they were of some importance within their community.\u00a0 The cist near the summit of Whitehorse Hill, at 600 metres above sea level, is one of the highest cists recorded on Dartmoor and its location in what is now a remote and windswept area within the centre of the sources of the Rivers Taw, Dart and Teign must be significant.<\/p>\n<p>Further information on the cist and its amazing artefacts and the forthcoming exhibition can be found at:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dartmoor.gov.uk\/wildlife-and-heritage\/heritage\/iron-age\/whitehorse-hill\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk\/lookingafter\/laf-culturalheritage\/whitehorse-hill-burial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The amazing array of finds from a Bronze Age burial on Whitehorse Hill on Dartmoor will be on display at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery from 13th September \u2013 13th December 2014. The excavation of a Bronze Age cist, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/latest-news\/bears-and-beads-on-whitehorse-hill\/\" aria-label=\"Continue reading Bears and Beads on Whitehorse Hill\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 18:33:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1967,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/1967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historicenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}