Editing History of Devon (section)

==Prehistory==
[[Devon]] was one of the first areas of [[Great Britain]] settled following the end of the last [[ice age]].  [[Kents Cavern]] in [[Torbay]] is one of the earliest places in England known to have been occupied by modern man. [[Dartmoor]] is thought to have been settled by [[Mesolithic]] [[hunter-gatherer]] peoples from about 6000 BC, and they later cleared much of the [[oak]] forest, which regenerated as moor.  In the [[Neolithic]] era, from about 3500 BC, there is evidence of farming on the moor, and also building and the erection of monuments, using the large [[granite]] boulders that are ready to hand there; Dartmoor contains the remains of the oldest known buildings in England.  There are over 500 known [[Neolithic]] sites on the moor, in the form of burial mounds, stone rows, stone circles and ancient settlements such as the one at [[Grimspound]].  Stone rows are a particularly striking feature, ranging in length from a few metres to over 3&nbsp;km.  Their ends are often marked by a cairn, a stone circle, or a [[standing stone]] (see [[menhir]]).  Because most of Dartmoor was not ploughed during the historic period, the [[archaeology|archaeological]] record is relatively easy to trace.

The name "Devon" derives from the tribe of [[Celts|Celtic]] people who inhabited the south-western peninsula of Britain at the time of the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] invasion in 43 AD, the [[Dumnonii]]: possibly meaning "deep valley dwellers" (Cornish: ''Dewnens'', Welsh: ''Dyfnaint'', Breton: ''Devnent'') or "worshippers of the god Dumnonos". This tribal name carried on into the Roman and post-Roman periods. The Dumnonii did not mint coins, unlike their neighbours to the east, the [[Durotriges]], but coins of the [[Dobunni]] have been found in the area. 

There was a [[Bronze Age]] trading port at [[Mount Batten]] in [[Plymouth Sound]].<ref>Barry Cunliffe : Mount Batten Plymouth: A Prehistoric and Roman Port. Oxford University Press 1988</ref>

=== Archaeology ===
In February 2022, archaeologists led by Rob Bourn, managing director of Orion Heritage, announced the discovery of the remains of a [[woolly mammoth]], [[reindeer]], [[rhinoceros]], [[bison]], [[wolf]] and [[hyena]] in a cave system during the building of a new town named [[Sherford (new town)|Sherford]]. Over 200 clusters of bones were removed by the explorers to analyse the life in Ice Age in Britain. Remains of a [[tusk]], [[Molar (tooth)|molar]] tooth, other bones of a woolly mammoth, a partial [[skull]] and a [[mandible]] of a woolly rhinoceros date to the middle of the last [[ice age]] between 60,000 and 30,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite web |title=- Sherford |url=http://sherford.org/news/megafauna-archaeological-finds-discovered-in-devon-with-a-mammoth-rhino-and-wolf-among-amazing-remains-uncovered-at-sherford-/ |access-date=2022-02-27 |website=sherford.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Woolly mammoth and rhino among Ice Age animals discovered in Devon cave |url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/february/woolly-mammoth-rhino-among-ice-age-animals-discovered-devon-cave.html |access-date=2022-02-27 |website=www.nhm.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Osborne |first2=Margaret |title=Dozens of Extinct Ice Age Animal Remains Found During Construction of a New Town in England |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-of-extinct-ice-age-animals-found-on-a-construction-site-in-england-180979539/ |access-date=2022-02-27 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-03 |title=Remains of woolly mammoth found on Devon building site |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/03/remains-of-woolly-mammoth-found-on-devon-building-site |access-date=2022-02-27 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>