Lanacombe 4: a stone setting on the ENE side of Lanacombe

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1014276
Date first listed:: 28-Mar-1996

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1014276
Date first listed:: 28-Mar-1996

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Somerset
District:: Somerset West and Taunton (District Authority)
Parish:: Exmoor
National Park:: EXMOOR
National Grid Reference:: SS 78654 43151

Reasons for Designation

Exmoor is the most easterly of the three main upland areas in the south western peninsula of England. In contrast to the other two areas, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, there has been no history of antiquarian research and little excavation of its monuments. However, survey work has confirmed a comparable richness of archaeological remains with evidence of human exploitation and occupation from the Mesolithic period to the present day. The well-preserved and often visible relationships between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways and ceremonial and funerary monuments give insight into successive changes in the pattern of land-use through time. Stone settings consist of a group of standing stones set out in an irregular or random pattern. There are a number of such sites on Exmoor where they appear to be a regional variation of the more common stone alignments. Stone settings are often sited close to prehistoric burial monuments, such as small cairns and cists, and to ritual monuments, such as stone circles, and are therefore considered to have had an important ceremonial function. Stone settings were being constructed and used from the Late Neolithic period to the Middle Bronze Age (c.2500-1000 BC) and provide rare evidence of ceremonial and ritual practices during these periods. Due to their rarity and longevity as a monument type all surviving examples are considered to be of national importance.

The Lanacombe 4 stone setting survives well and will retain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the construction and use of the monument. The importance of the Lanacombe 4 stone setting is enhanced by being part of a linear group of five similar sites.

Details

The monument includes a group of three standing stones, two recumbent stones and the archaeologically sensitive area between and around these features. It is situated on the ENE side of the Lanacombe ridge. The stones are set out in an apparently random manner over an area of 0.01ha. The standing stones are between 10mm and 700mm high, 200mm to 270mm wide and 100mm to 160mm thick. One of the stones only just protrudes through the turf.

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 25204
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Quinnell, N V, Dunn, C J, Lithic Monuments within the Exmoor National Park: A New Survey, (1992), 45

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.