Prehistoric Dartmoor excavation

10 Aug 2011
Last updated during 02:11 ET

It is believed a funeral cover was built about 5,000 years ago

Archaeologists have begun excavating a antiquated funeral cover on Dartmoor in Devon.

The funeral chamber, famous as a cist, is on Whitehorse Hill, nearby Chagford.

It was detected 10 years ago when one a stones fell out of a peat that had been concealing it.

Dartmoor National Parks Authority (DNPA) pronounced it was over 100 years given a funeral cover on Dartmoor had been excavated.

It pronounced a cover was surprising since it was not nearby any other famous archaeological sites.

Archaeologists wish to analyse buried pollen, insects and colourless in a peat to settle sum of a surrounding landscape when a cover was created.

Artefacts search

They are also looking for artefacts deposited as partial of a funeral ritual, including pottery, beads and mill tools.

It is believed a funeral took place about 5,000 years ago.

DNPA pronounced a antiquated cists found on Dartmoor were chest-like structures, customarily sunk into a ground, with dual prolonged chunk side slabs and dual finish slabs set between a sides and lonesome with a vast slab.

There are scarcely 200 flourishing cists on a moor.

The formula of a mine during Whitehorse Hill will be published after in a year.