University expert helps reveal hidden stories behind Early Bronze Age burial discovery
Professor Ralph Fyfe has been liaising with the Dartmoor National Park Authority and others across the UK on the excavation at Cut Hill
![A week-long excavation at Cut Hill on Dartmoor revealed an exceptional cist, a stone-built box used to bury the dead in prehistoric times](https://d3bpgcke55gfwt.cloudfront.net/rails/active_storage/representations/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBNUdmWGc9PSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--b4f0e70b8abe36cb0bd068aed05477690e60da28/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdDRG9MWm05eWJXRjBTU0lJYW5CbkJqb0dSVlE2RkhKbGMybDZaVjkwYjE5c2FXMXBkRnNIYVFKWUFta0NMQUU2Q25OaGRtVnlld2s2RTNOMVluTmhiWEJzWlY5dGIyUmxTU0lIYjI0R093WlVPZ3B6ZEhKcGNGUTZEbWx1ZEdWeWJHRmpaVlE2REhGMVlXeHBkSGxwVUE9PSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoidmFyaWF0aW9uIn19--42754237235ba1e6f9325deaf83c5a2657141cd3/Cut-Hill-COPYRIGHT-Alec-Collyer.jpg)
The data confirmed the cist was placed in a relatively small area of bog heath with cotton-grass and heather, almost like an island, within a broader wooded landscape. These weren’t people who were suddenly building burial monuments and reorganising the landscape around them. They were living in a place they were intimately familiar with and knew a lot about.
Ralph Fyfe
Professor in Geospatial Information
It’s a stunning discovery with the potential to be every bit as fascinating as the finds at Whitehorse Hill. We were all pretty speechless when we lifted the capstone and looked inside. Not only is the cist bigger than we expected, but it contained multiple pieces of wood that appear to have been deliberately shaped and cut. This prompts more questions: could the wood have been an object that was dismantled and deliberately placed inside the grave? If so, what was it and who did it belong to? The next stage is for micro-excavations to determine what's in there.
Read more about ongoing work to analyse the Cut Hill cist, and efforts to raise funds that will support its conservation, on the Dartmoor National Park Authority's website.
“I love the fact you can look down a microscope and see something that is 8,000 years old, that no-one else has examined or ever will.”
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