Day 5: Dartmoor National Park

You alright? That means “how are you doing?” over here in the UK.

Welcome back to the blog. Today we had another long day in the van and took a couple of stops in Dartmoor National Park after starting very early in the morning.

The Duo strikes again!

Don't work too hard there, Charlie!

Our journey began at 6:30 this morning and we drove an hour and a half to our first site. Immediately everyone could tell when we arrived at Dartmoor; the land turned in to rolling hills and wide open green fields that seemed to never end. There were animals including sheep, ponies and cows roaming free. It was quite amazing to see animals in the wild like this. Although we all really wanted to go and pet the ponies, we were advised not to. Next we hiked up one of the hills. As we walked along we stopped frequently to look at different stone patterns. We saw geometric features composed of sub-rounded boulders. These features ranged in size from 3 to 4 meters long to 10 to 12 meters long.  We saw stone nets, which are oval in form with a depression in the center.  These form along a steeper gradient slope.  We also saw stone stripes on even steeper slopes formed in a similar way to the nets. One can observe a pattern with lines of  stones broken up by a continuous vegetation cover that runs down a slope. Finally we noticed sorted stone circles with the long axis or A axis aligned in a circular pattern on the gentlest slopes. All of these landscape features stem from periglacial processes dominated by freeze-thaw action operating on the tor above.  We discussed the joints in the bedrock which create avenues for water to migrate laterally and downwardly. Upon freezing, expansion of the ice wedges the rocks apart into smaller ones. Periglacial processes move these rocks down the hill and form all the stone patterns on the slope. All the stones were made up of Dartmoor granite. This is a rock that has three different minerals in it: quartz, mica, and feldspar. It forms from when magma slow cools resulting in the large crystals.

Our rocky classroom. The seats weren't the most comfortable, but you can't beat the view!

Also, along the way, we found and identified three types of flowers and plant species. First was the Bell Heather, a purple bulb like flower. The color went from dark to light on each individual bulb. Next was a Potentilla. It was a yellow flower that looked very similar to a buttercup and very small. Last was the Bracken, a type of fern. It was all over the hill slope and is an invasive species in many moorlands in upland Britain.  After we made it to the top we sat down to hide from the wind, which was blowing at about 20 knots (about 23 mph) and was just about blowing Brittany over!  

Bell Heather

Potentilla

Bracken Fern

The  focus of our next stop was on human impacts on the land. These are not impacts from modern development, but rather impacts from ancient cultures. Again, we looked for patterns and other unique features and found stone circles.  Unlike the circles found at the tor on our previous stop, these were more obviously placed there with a purpose. They were oriented in a way that would not have occurred naturally.  They were placed on their sides with the widest side oriented inward. 

A circle of stones - mysterious.

Shortly thereafter, we came upon another feature affected by humans which appeared to be some sort of burial site.  It had two large stones over a shallow hole, about the right size for a body. Brittany had fun climbing in! It is important to note that we say it “appeared to be”. One thing that was made very clear during this portion of the trip is that, without concrete evidence, any ideas we have of what a feature could have been used for is just that – an idea. So while we might think, from our current perspective, that it was a burial site, we are basing that on our own modern ideas and cultural norms.

How is it down there, Britt?

Other features encountered included another stone circle; this one more spread out than the previous one and only had 11 stones in total. One theory is that this was used as some sort of calendar by which to track the seasons. Not far from this was a tall pillar. All these ‘field monuments’ are of an architectural style called megalithic.

The class discusses the pillar.

The main point made during this visit was the effect that human interactions with the environment can be long-term. The peat in this area has been analyzed for pollen types to determine the vegetation that would have been present at various times. The pollen present in the layer coinciding with the time during which these features are believed to have been placed suggests that, had that human interaction not occurred, the area would currently be wooded rather than grassy as it is today.

Overall we had a great day and all learned a lot about rocks from Dr. Middlekauff and a lot about archaeological impacts from Dr. Smith. Dr. Collins had a lot of important ideas that put everything the other teachers said into perspective. 

Until next time!
-The Duo

Sponsorship towards the creation of some of the materials for the Study Abroad in the UK trip provided by the Office of Undergraduate of Research.