Mysterious Bronze Age stone discovery: Everything we know about ancient stones in Derbyshire forest
Archaeologists uncover part of a Bronze Age stone complex near Matlock, challenging previous beliefs of a solitary standing stone.
A team of archaeologists have unearthed secrets hidden for centuries in a Derbyshire forest.
Excavations have been carried out by Forestry England in partnership with the Time Team at Farley Moor near Matlock.
What was originally thought to be a single standing stone is now considered to be just one part of a sprawling Bronze Age stone complex.
The top team of archaeological experts consisting of Lawrence Shaw, Derek Pitman, Hilde Van Der Heul, Naomi Sewpaul and Benjamin Thomas travelled to Farley Moor to study the standing stone and immediate surrounding areas.
They released a video of their three-day long study. In the newly released Time Team video, Mr Shaw spoke about the ‘incredible’ stone.
You can watch the trailer below.
He said: “The incredible standing stone raises many questions, is it [part of] a larger monument or an individual standing stone?
“We know there’s a history of prehistoric stone circles on the gritstone moors, is this another one to add to the list?”
Other stones continued to be identified in the region, with two other stones discovered close to the main standing stone.
Investigations were initially carried out to see if the standing stone was just a single, isolated feature, or if it was once part of something bigger.
Mr Shaw continued: “We deliberately targeted features on opposing sides of the main stone to hedge our bets in the hope of capturing different activities or orientations.
“The third largest standing stone in the gritstone moors could date back to the Bronze Age.”
What is the Bronze Age?
According to Surrey County Council, the Bronze Age was the time from around 2,000BC to 700BC when people used bronze.
Plans were underway to better understand the standing stone and surrounding landscape.
A story started to emerge at the end of the first day of excavation.
A cluster of stones were unearthed around the base of the standing stone.
The idea of the standing stone being part of a larger formation was looking more likely by day two.
More stones, some in a cobbled formation, started to appear as the team continued digging.
By day three more secrets were revealed. The team hypothesised the stone formation being some sort of platform, possibly ‘ceremonial’.
The standing stone was said to have possibly been a ‘beacon’ marking the significance of the landscape.
One member of the team said: “The trench itself has been magnificent.
“But for me the story of this place is the landscape and there are so many potential standing stones.
“It is tantalising to think of it as a huge kind of monumental environment where communities would come gather around a spring head and just share stories and interact with each other.”
Sockets, a water spring, trenches and potentially even a new stone were discovered during the excavation.
The team hypothesised at the end of their study, that the initial standing stone looked to be part of a larger stone circle that formed an oval shape, and part of ‘big Bronze Age activity’.
The discovery of charcoal provided a date to the stone formation.
Naomi, one of Time Team carefully processed soil samples, drying them out to meticulously sift through the tiny organic remains searching for charcoal that could be dated.
From the soils taken around the packing materials of the standing stone, Naomi uncovered just enough burnt material to send off to the carbon dating laboratories at Oxford University.
A Time Team member said: “The back fill around our standing stone dated to 2000 BCE, the early Bronze Age.
“We are absolutely thrilled and even more exciting, this means that our platform that we uncovered, must date from the same period or perhaps even earlier.
“It’s the perfect ending to what’s been an extraordinary expedition for the team.”
The archaeology team plan to carry out a deeper investigation at the site next summer to study some of the newly identified stones.
The site unearthed stones and more questions including date when the site was first created and establishing how big the larger ritual complex is.
For more information about the Time Team’s work click here: timeteamdigital.com