>One thing which has been bugging me though, has been the distinct lack of a real decent
>settlement in the area.
I've wondered for a while if the 'settlement' enclosures on Ilkley Moor, were in fact domestic areas at all... or at least in part. All of the enclosures are scattered with rock art... Backstone Beck, Green Crag, the walling around the Idol Stone, Woofa Bank etc. I think I sent you a copy of Gavin Edwards' excavation report on Backstone Beck, where he states that occupation debris was conspicuous in it's absence... apart from a few bits of broken pottery around the three decorated boulders. Also that few footprints for dwellings.... also that the wall was probably never more than about a yard high and there was no evidence for it having being topped by a fence.
It all kinda makes me think that maybe the enclosures had more of a 'ritual' puropse than for occupation... Woofa Bank feels very much like that too. Pure speculation on my part, but I suspect that the main occupation areas were on the lower slopes above what is now Ilkley.
 Reply | with quote | Posted by Kozmik_Ken
14th April 2005ce
08:51 |
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Head To Head 
Re: New Rock Art Discoveries, north of Ilkley (Paulus)