A reave is a long and generally straight boundary wall made of stone that was built during the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. Reaves were identified as prehistoric features on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England in 1972, and although they had been described by antiquarians in the 1820s, the knowledge of their origins had been lost, ignored and misrepresented for around 150 years. There are three main classes of reaves: parallel reaves divided land to create rectilinear fields which were sometimes subdivided by cross reaves. Terminal reaves tend to run for great distances along

contours Contour may refer to: * Contour (linguistics), a phonetic sound * Pitch contour * Contour (camera system), a 3D digital camera system * Contour, the KDE Plasma 4 interface for tablet devices * Contour line, a curve along which the function h ...

or watersheds and served to divide the enclosed areas from the higher open moor. In total, the reaves on Dartmoor cover an area of over . There are over 20 major field systems delineated by reaves on Dartmoor. The largest is around

Rippon Tor Rippon Tor is a striking tor on eastern Dartmoor, in England, that stands at above sea level. It has three cairns, of which are some of Dartmoor's largest, a triangulation pillar, and several rock piles that overlook the northern high moors ...

, which covers over . Other large systems are North Dart (over ), South Dart () and Easdon Down (). The longest reave identified on Dartmoor is known as the Great Western Reave, which, although incomplete, stretches over from beyond White Tor in the north, over Roos Tor, through the Merrivale archaeological landscape and Foggintor granite quarries to its southern end, east of Sharpitor, by the side of the B3212 road.Fleming 1988, pp.42–44

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