Dear Bernard,
The prehistoric field systems of Dartmoor were not entirely abandoned. Below a certain height above sea level, particularly on the moorland fringes, they survive, fossilised in existing fields. The Bittaford field system is quoted by Fleming, but there are many others. My own work on the south Devon coast is of this nature, identifying patterns in existing field systems of the same sort as survive as low rubble banks and earthworks on the open moor.
Its interesting to observe that from the C12-C14 on Dartmoor, there was a warm period, in which resettlement of the higher moor was at least attempted. When this came to an end, between the mid-C14 and mid-C15, the settlement retreated to the same upper limit as before - ie: where the edge of the settled ground is now, more or less.
Robert
> Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:40:20 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Trackways
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Dear Trevor,
>
> I agree with you completely. These things have obviously caught the
> attention and interest of many by their obvious antiquity. There is a superb
> Bronze Age settlement somewhere (at least - since there are earlier settlements
> within a five mile radius), very little known, rarely visited - and remote
> thankfully - that I have been to many times just to ponder 'the system' and
> thinking that went into it's construction and operation, to think on the
> workings of it's structures and associated enclosures - and in combination
> with the surrounding half a mile or so. It is obvious that there was a
> significant level of agricultural knowledge... this knowledge did not develop
> there, it had been known long before. For some reason or another it was
> eventually abandoned, and, as has been said before within this gnrl. subject,
> climate conditions are a factor to be considered... whatever be they case
> they moved on eventually for whatever reason, but when they went they left
> behind them something that had taken a long time to establish - and it was
> never re-used... just left to the winds of time.
>
> The re-use of 'things' (whether inferred or proven), creates all sorts of
> problems... just takes a bit of time to unravel that's all! Patience,
> Persistence, and Determination!
>
> Regards, Bernard
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