Reasons for Designation
Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been
recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The
Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the
best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of
prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human
exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The
well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field
systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains
provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land
use through time.
Standing stones are ceremonial monuments dating from the Late Neolithic and
Bronze Age (c 2500-750 BC). They comprise single or paired upright slabs,
ranging in height from under 1m to over 6m, where still erect. Standing
stones are often conspicuously sited and sometimes are located in or on the
edge of round barrows or cairns. Excavations have demonstrated sub-surface
features adjacent to standing stones, including stone funerary cists, spreads
of small pebbles and various pits and hollows filled in some cases with human
bone, cremations, charcoal and domestic artefacts. Similar deposits have been
found in excavated sockets for standing stones, which vary considerably in
depth. Standing stones may have functioned as markers for routeways,
territorial boundaries, graves and meeting points, but their adjacent features
show that they also bore a ritual function, forming one of the several known
ritual monument classes of their period. Estimates suggest that about 250
standing stones are known nationally, of which the 16 examples surviving on
Bodmin Moor form an important sub-group. They are a long-lived class of
monument, highly representative of their period and all examples except those
which are extensively damaged are considered to be of national importance.
This standing stone on Twelve Men's Moor has survived well. Despite its
marked lean due to sub-surface subsidence, it has not been excavated, damaged
or moved from its original site and it will also retain intact its sub-surface
features. The substantial depth of peat at this location will also preserve
environmental data contemporary with, and subsequent to, its erection. Its
proximity to a broadly contemporary linear boundary and cairns demonstrates
well the organisation of land use and the nature of ritual activity during the
later Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
Details
The monument includes a Prehistoric standing stone on Twelve Men's Moor,
situated close to a broadly contemporary linear boundary with adjacent cairns,
near the centre of a high-altitude valley between Bearah Tor and Kilmar Tor on
eastern Bodmin Moor.
The standing stone survives as a slender granite slab, at least 3m long,
square in section at its base with sides 0.5m wide, tapering slightly to
measure 0.4m by 0.35m at its tip, which is reduced to triangular section by a
naturally fractured surface. The uppermost 0.75m of the stone's southern face
below the tip bulges out by 0.1m from the otherwise even taper of the sides.
All surfaces and edges of the stone are considerably eroded, showing no traces
of deliberate working or dressing. The stone leans markedly to the south,
such that its tip is 0.9m above ground level. Despite this, the base of the
stone is firmly embedded in the thick peat of the valley floor, whose turf
rises to cover the lowermost 0.8m of the stone's north face, leaving the
remaining 2.2m of the slab exposed, projecting to the south.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
