A Fresh Interpretation Of Bronze Age Dartmoor. 1

Dartmoor, and to a lesser extent Bodmin Moor contain more Bronze Age remains than anywhere else in Europe. Both are granite uplands and both are rich in the oxide of tin, cassiterite. Dartmoor was the richest source of alluvial tin ore in Europe. The tin ore was on or near the surface in the river and stream beds and did not need deep mining.

Dartmoor became highly populated during the Bronze Age and less populated when iron began to take the place of bronze. It is probable that, because Dartmoor contained large amounts of tin, that it became highly populated. The two facts must be related. Just as parts of Alaska became highly populated when they discovered gold, parts of Britain became highly populated when they discovered tin.

Although there is little hard evidence of exploitation of tin in the Bronze Age, the circumstantial evidence is obvious. The Bronze Age prospectors were not likely to have overlooked such a rich and readily available source of tin.

Before the Bronze Age, the people who lived in the agriculturally rich lands of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia were experimenting and working with metals such as copper gold and silver. Gold was in great demand for jewellery and decoration, but was of little practical value. Copper was used for weapons and tools but was easily broken and blunted. The need was for something more durable, that could be worked at low temperatures and was easily moulded.

It was found that copper with a little arsenic formed a excellent alloy, but the metal workers began to suffer from arsenic poisoning. The industry needed to find a substitute for the dangerous arsenic.

A variety of metals would have been tried, until they realised that a small amount of tin mixed with the copper formed the perfect and safe alloy. Tin was a rare mineral and all the local sources were soon worked out. Prospectors and traders travelled great distances in search of the rare and by now very valuable mineral.

The Minoans and Phoenicians were both accomplished seafarers and traders and had ships that could sail out of the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic. The quest for tin was on..

The extraction and export of tin ore became an industry on Dartmoor, and all industries require an infrastructure and a logistics system. In the next chapters I will show how the various Bronze Age constructions on Dartmoor may have been elements in this infrastructure.