DARTMOUTH’S BY PHIL SCOBLE
When is pre-history? It’s not an easy answer. Pre history indicates, perhaps obviously, the time before we have a written account of events. We therefore base our beliefs on what has happened by artifacts and geological data to piece together a not very clear story of what happened to the peoples of the world over time.
So to ask the questions “who lived in Dartmouth in Pre-history” and “what was their life like” is difficult – because it has to be pieced together to create a general picture.
It was recently discovered that modern humans were in Torquay around 40,000 years ago – much earlier than was previously thought. This was in the Paleolithic era, in the middle of the last age. Humans were spreading out of Africa where the species had evolved more than 200,000 years before. A brief warming of a little over 1,000 years allowed men to push up into Britain, following herds of deer and mammoths. This warm window was a brief interlude in the glacial age and soon the cold weather returned and would have made life nigh impossible for any group living in the area. The first evidence of settlement around Dartmouth was found on the beach below South Town – showing occupation of some kind during the Mesolithic Era between 10,000 and 4,000 years ago.
Flints, used as cutting tools were found on the beach, which would have been the highest point of the riverbank,
as sea levels were lower (Blackpool Sands has a drowned forest at the very lowest tides). Historians believe the people of the time spent winter by the coast and summer on Dartmoor hunting deer and other animals, including wild boar, wolf and even goat. The moors had been mostly forested at that time, so they were sheltered and attractive places to spend the warm summer months. Capton, on the road to Dittisham, provides the next evidence of human habitation around Dartmouth. A large number of flint tools were found there, along with a beautiful carving of a human
Man migrated to Britain when we were once joined to the continent
face. These date from the Neolithic Era, around 4,000 years ago and seem to show a change in the way the people of Devon were living. During the Neolithic age there was a move towards farming as the prevalent way of life in the South West - before which most had been hunter- gatherers. Men started to mark off fields, domesticate animals and even honour their dead with permanent burials. Capton was probably one of many small settlements that began to spring up. At about this time Stonehenge was being constructed and it is clear that the communities and cultures that did exist were structured, complex and settled.
As the Neolithic age passed, men from the south brought technology - specifically the ability to smelt metal and so the Bronze Age was born. Barrows, a new way of interring the dead, are found all over the South Hams from this period and there is one at Brownstone near Kingswear. Even if no record of habitations exists, Dartmouth and the river Dart must have been vital to the many people who lived in South Devon – it was a source of food and would have been a convenient way to easily launch boats for fishing and trading trips.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144