The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 120 • Colin Haselgrove
ancillary structures and byres, not houses, and the excavator’s estimate of the Later Iron Age
population is five households (Pryor 1984). A rather larger population has been suggested for the
Glastonbury lake village (Somerset), reaching a maximum of 14 households in the early first
century BC, before increasingly wet conditions led to contraction and abandonment (Coles and
Minnitt 1995). A number of Roman small towns seem to originate in Late Iron Age aggregated
settlements, as at Baldock (Hertfordshire).
In the upper Thames Valley of Oxfordshire, different settlement types are seen on the
upper and lower gravel terraces (Lambrick 1992). The second terrace is dominated by aggregated
settlements like Abingdon Ashville and Gravelly Guy, with separate areas for pit storage and
domestic occupation. These sites may have operated communally, each with its strip of arable
at the terrace edge, but sharing pasture away from the river. A different settlement type is
found on the first terrace, reflecting an expansion of pastoral farming during the Later Iron
Age. These are smaller, self-contained ditched or hedged enclosures with funnel entrances, as
at Hardwick. Lastly, a scatter of short-lived seasonally occupied sites were established on the
floodplain to exploit summer grazing. Seasonal settlements are known elsewhere, some linked
to part-time craft specialization, as at Eldon’s Seat (Dorset), where Kimmeridge Shale bracelets
were manufactured. The wetland settlement at Meare (Somerset) is now interpreted as the site
of a seasonal fair.
The main period of hillfort building in southern England occurred during the sixth and fifth
centuries BC. However, the defence of hill-tops in Britain has a long and varied history, with
construction peaking at different times in different regions. In north and central Wales, for example,
the earliest hillforts like the Breiddin (Powys) succeeded Bronze Age enclosures, whereas in East
Anglia and the Weald, most hillforts were built in the Later Iron Age. Scottish sites like Eildon
Hill North (Roxburghshire) and Traprain Law (East Lothian) were apparently abandoned as
centres of habitation before the classic southern British hillforts were even built, although they
were reoccupied during the Roman Iron Age and may have retained a ceremonial role during the
intervening centuries. In southern England, the earliest hillforts occur from the Cotswolds along
the chalk downs of north Wessex as far as the Chiltern scarp.
These early hillforts comprise two main categories: smaller, well-fortified sites with dense
internal activity, as at Crickley Hill (Gloucestershire) or Moel-y-Gaer (Powys), and larger hilltop
enclosures like Bathampton Down (Avon), with scant evidence of any occupation. At this stage,
the defences usually consisted of a single earth or stone rampart, often of box-framed or timberlaced
construction, with a relatively simple entrance. After c.350 BC, many early hillforts in Wessex
and elsewhere were abandoned, while a smaller number, generally known as developed hillforts,
were extended and often massively elaborated. These were usually protected by multiple glacisstyle
earthworks, constructed so that the external face of each dump rampart formed a continuous
profile with a V-shaped ditch, while entrances often consisted of long passages protected by
complex outworks. Good examples of developed hillforts include Cadbury Castle (Somerset),
Croft Ambrey (Herefordshire), Danebury (Hampshire) and Maiden Castle (Dorset).
Although neither Danebury—where more than half the interior has been excavated—nor
Maiden Castle can be considered typical of British sites, between them they exemplify the main
features of both early and developed hillforts, as well as illustrating the processes by which certain
hillforts rose to dominate their locality between the fourth and second centuries BC. Their earlier
occupation phases were characterized by well-ordered layouts, and by possession of substantial
food storage capacities. At Danebury (Cunliffe 1993), the northern interior was occupied by
rows of four-post storage structures—later replaced by a mass of storage pits—while a limited
number of circular buildings were constructed in its southern half and around the circumference
(Figure 7.5). At this stage, finds apart from pottery were relatively sparse at either hillfort.