Doll Tor

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Doll Tor

Doll Tor is an ancient stone circle in the Peak District of Derbyshire, standing on a hill just to the west of Stanton Moor, near the village of Birchover.

With a diameter of 23 feet, Doll Tor consists of six upright main stones arranged in a circle. Drystone walling consisting of smaller, flat stones was packed between these orthostats. A stone cairn had been added to the east of the circle, perhaps in a second phase of construction. Excavation has revealed that the cremated human remains of various adults and children were buried both within the circle and around the cairn. These remains were sometimes placed in ceramic urns although in other cases they were not, and were sometimes deposited alongside other material such as flint tools, small pieces of bronze, and faience beads.

The antiquarian Thomas Bateman excavated at the site in 1852, and J. P. Heathcote conducted a second excavation between 1931 and 1933. By the early 21st century, the site was being used for ritual activity by modern Pagans. Unknown persons caused damage to the site in 1993 and 2020 by moving various stones around, necessitating projects to return them to their original locations.

Location

Doll Tor stands on the western flank of Stanton Moor,[1] half a mile north of the village of Birchover in Derbyshire.[2] It is near a range of other prehistoric remains, including features associated with both agricultural and ritual activity.[1] The archaeologist Aubrey Burl described the area of Stanton Moor as "a prehistoric necropolis of cairns, ring-cairns, standing stones and stone circles".[3] Doll Tor is for instance located 250 yards south-west of the Andle Stone and overlooks the Harthill Moor Stone Circle.[4] In 2005, Burl noted that the site was comparatively easy to visit,[2] although as of 2020 the site, which is located on privately-owned land, is not open to the public.[5]

The stone circle is today a Scheduled Monument.[6]

Context

Stanton Moor

In Derbyshire, there are five or six known stone circles although the remains of many ring-cairns, a different style of prehistoric monument, are also common and can look much like the stone rings.[7] Stylistically, those found in this county are similar to those found in Yorkshire.[7]

Within the Peak District, nine was frequently favoured as the number of stones used in a circle.[8] The only large stone circles in the Peak are Arbor Low and The Bull Ring, both monuments which combine a stone circle with an earthen henge and which are located on the sandstone layers.[8] There are also a few smaller stone circles, such as Doll Tor and the Nine Stones Close, that are close to the limestone edge.[9]

Design, construction, and use

[File:Doll Tor stone circle, Derbyshire.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Doll Tor from the east]] The date of Doll Tor's construction remains unknown,[2] although archaeologists have referred to it as Bronze Age.[4][10] At least two phases of construction have been identified.[2]

The first phase involved the creation of the stone circle itself, built from six rocks set upright as orthostats.{{#invoke:Footnotes|sfnm}} The circle measured 23 feet in diameter.[2] The western side of the circle was made from stones that were slightly taller and heavier than those used on the other sides;[2] this could have given the impression of the circle sloping upwards from east to west, while the ground itself sloped downward in this direction.[11] The orthostats have been erected atop a stony platform that was perhaps created during the original construction process so as to level the ground.[12] There was no evidence of a bank having been carved out around the perimeter of the circle, as is seen at some other sites of this type.[13] At an unknown point in time, drystone walling was added to the circle, used to connect the six standing orthostats;{{#invoke:Footnotes|sfnm}} this largely comprised flat stones.[14]

The second phase of construction saw stones being used to build up a cairn directly adjacent to the eastern side of the circle.[14] This mound was sub-rectangular in shape.[2] At the eastern end of this cairn was a large flat stone, perhaps once having covered an interment, although no evidence of the latter was recovered during excavation.[15] This structure has been compared to the ring-cairn affixed to the stone circle at Gortcorbies in County Londonderry.[3]

Human remains

Archaeological excavation of Doll Tor has found evidence for the burial of various humans at the site. The ceramic vessels associated with these burials have been described as Late Bronze Age.[16] This use of stone circles for burials has been noted at other locations across the Midlands: Burl suggests that these examples reflect "the conversion of an ancient sanctuary into a later sepulchre".[17]

Excavation during the 1850s revealed the presence of three or four collared urns, of the Pennine type, along with incense cups, in the centre of the circle.{{#invoke:Footnotes|sfnm}} Subsequent excavation in the early 1930s revealed a burnt flint knife in the centre of the circle and fragments of "a thick plain urn" inside the southeast edge of the circle.[18]

The Doll Tor stone circle

The 1930s excavations also revealed an area of charcoal mixed with pieces of ceramic decorated with long straight lines and the bones of a child. This was also inside the south-eastern part of the circle.[19] On the eastern side of Doll Tor was found a large deposit of cremated material which osteological analysis suggested were the remains of an adult male; no ceramic material was found with it.[20] At the south-western side of the circle, further charcoal was found close to the orthostat, interpreted as the remains of a cremation in which the human bone had been utterly incinerated.[14] At the base of the orthostat on the west of the circle was found a roughly made urn, 3¼ inches in height, with "very few bones" accompanying it.[14]

Excavation during the 1930s also revealed at least six interments of human remains around the cairn to the east of the stone circle.[21] In the centre of the cairn, a large stone slab had been placed above the cremated remains of a cremated adult, interpreted at the time as being a woman. With the bones was a segmented faience bead with a dark red base colour.[22]

At the southern side of the cairn was a deposit containing a small urn 3½ inches in height, which was found inverted at the time of recovery, as well as a few "very small" pieces of bronze, three unburnt flint scrapers, and "very few bones".[15] At the south-eastern part of the cairn were recovered a flint scraper and two urns on their side, one measuring 3¼ inches in height and the other 5¼ inches. The human remains associated with this interment were determined to be those of a child.[15] At the north of the cairn was a pit containing the remains of an adult human, believed to be probably male. A red faience star bead was found with the bones.[23] At that time, it was suggested that this bead was ultimately of Egyptian origin.[24] At the northeast of the cairn were the remains of a child along with fragments of a large urn; these were positioned beneath a large flat stone.[24]

Excavation and vandalism

On 10 April 1852, the antiquarian Thomas Bateman visited Stanton Moor in the company of two others, Mr Carrington and Mr Glover. They came upon Doll Tor and there found several small ceramic sherds and calcinated bones which had been unearthed by burrowing rabbits. The trio used their pen knives to dig into the soil and found that there was more material beneath the surface. They then borrowed a spade and hack from a nearby farm, using these to dig into the centre of the circle, revealing the broken remains of either three of four cinerary urns and what they interpreted as "incense cups."[25] In his 1861 book Ten Years Diggings in Celtic and Saxon Grave-Hills in the Counties of Derby, Stafford and York, Bateman subsequently produced the first written record of the stone circle's existence.[4] Several of the urn fragments which he discovered were later reassembled at the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield. [4]

Between 1931 and 1933, two men, J. P. Heathcote and J. C. Heathcote, carried out excavations at the site, making further discoveries. Three of the orthostats were found smashed apart by persons unknown, two of them broken into at least a dozen pieces each. The Heathcotes subsequently ensured that these broken stones were cemented back together.[11]

Doll Tor has attracted the interest of neo-pagans who have used it to perform rituals; there has been even more of such behaviour at another Derbyshire stone circle, the Nine Ladies.[26] In 2018, the Derbyshire Times noted that offerings could regularly be found tied to trees around the site.[27]

In the spring of 1993, unknown persons altered the stone circle, increasing the number of orthostats from six to fourteen. They had removed the circle kerb and much of the eastern cairn and moved the stones from there to create a bank covering three sides of the cairn's central setting. Several boulders had also been set upright to create a roughly circular feature to the southern side of the main ring.[1] It is believed that those responsible then performed rituals at the site.{{#invoke:Footnotes|sfnm}} Burl blamed these changes on "New Age delusions of the power of imaginary fertility rites at the time of the Spring equinox".[28] This alteration was a criminal act;[28] it was discovered by Pauline Ashmore and Barry Marsden, who soon alerted the Peak National Park Archaeology Service.[29]

A project was subsequently launched to restore Doll Tor to its previous appearance, bringing together professional archaeologists, students, and rangers from the Peak District National Park service.[1] The resultant excavation found evidence of a "stony platform" inside the circle, which they deemed an artificial prehistoric layer; that it was intact in places led them to believe that there were parts of the site which had not been excavated by either Bateman or Heathcote.[12] Although two of the orthostats had been lying prone since at least the mid-19th century, having fallen from their original standing position,{{#invoke:Footnotes|sfnm}} the restoration project decided to re-erect these.[29]

In early June 2020 further damage was discovered, with several stones having been moved and a number of fires lit.[30] Historic England described the act as a "heritage crime".{{#invoke:Footnotes|sfnm}}

Outside links

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References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Barnatt 1997, p. 81.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Burl 2005, p. 52.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Burl 2000, p. 299.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Heathcote 1939, p. 116.
  5. ↑ Paget 2020.
  6. ↑ National Heritage List 1017664: Doll Tor stone circle (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Burl 2000, p. 297.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Burl 2000, p. 298.
  9. ↑ Burl 2000, pp. 289-290.
  10. ↑ Historic England 2020.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Heathcote 1939, p. 123.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Barnatt 1997, p. 83.
  13. ↑ Burl 2000, pp. 298-299.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Heathcote 1939, p. 119.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Heathcote 1939, p. 120.
  16. ↑ Heathcote 1939, p. 122.
  17. ↑ Burl 2000, p. 292.
  18. ↑ Heathcote 1939, p. 117.
  19. ↑ Heathcote 1939, pp. 117, 124.
  20. ↑ Heathcote 1939, pp. 117, 119, 124.
  21. ↑ Burl 2005, pp. 52-53.
  22. ↑ Heathcote 1939, pp. 121-122.
  23. ↑ Heathcote 1939, pp. 120-121.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Heathcote 1939, p. 121.
  25. ↑ Bateman 1861, p. 84.
  26. ↑ Blain & Wallis 2007, pp. 10, 138, 140.
  27. ↑ Anon 2018.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Burl 2000, p. 11.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Barnatt 1997, p. 84.
  30. ↑ Watson 2020.

Further reading

  • Barnatt, John (1978). Stone Circles of the Peak. London: Turnstone Books. ISBN 978-0855000882. 
  • Barnatt, John (1987). "Bronze Age Settlement on the East Moors of the Peak District of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 53: 393–418. doi:10.1017/S0079497X00006307. 
  • Barnatt, John (1990). The Henges, Stone Circles and Ringcairns of the Peak District. Sheffield Archaeological Monographs I. Sheffield: J. R. Collis Publications. ISBN 978-0906090343. 
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