|
British Hillforts
Hillforts in Britain refers to the various hillforts within the island of Great Britain. Although the earliest such constructs fitting this description come from the Neolithic British Isles, with a few also dating to later Bronze Age Britain, British hillforts were primarily constructed during the British Iron Age. Some of these were apparently abandoned in the southern areas that were a part of Roman Britain, although at the same time, those areas of northern Britain that remained free from Roman occupation saw an increase in their construction. Some hillforts were reused in the Early Middle Ages, and in some rarer cases, into the later medieval period as well. By the early modern period, these had essentially all been abandoned, with many being excavated by archaeologists in the nineteenth century onward. There are around 3,300 structures that can be classed as hillforts or similar "defended enclosures" within Britain. Most of these are clustered in certain regions: south and sout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hillfort
A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roman Empire, Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill and consists of one or more lines of Earthworks (Archaeology), earthworks or stone Rampart (fortification), ramparts, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches. If enemies were approaching, the inhabitants would spot them from a distance. Prehistoric Europe saw a growing population. It has been estimated that in about 5000 BC during the Neolithic between 2 million and 5 million lived in Europe; in the Late Iron Age it had an estimated population of around 15 to 30 million. Outside Greece and Italy, which were more densely populated, the vast majority of settlements in the Iron Age were small, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mortimer Wheeler
Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, CIE Military Cross, MC Territorial Decoration, TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales and London Museum (1912–1976), London Museum, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, and the founder and Honorary Director of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology in London, in addition to writing twenty-four books on archaeological subjects. Born in Glasgow to a middle-class family, Wheeler was raised largely in Yorkshire before moving to London in his teenage years. After studying classics at University College London (UCL), he began working professionally in archaeology, specialising in the Roman Britain, Romano-British period. During World War I he volunteered for servi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinas Dinlle
Dinas Dinlle is a hillfort in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. The cliff above the beach is known as Boncan Dinas and is occupied by an Iron Age hillfort, Dinas Dinlle itself. This fort has been eroded by the sea, such that only a double semi-circular rampart remains. Finds of Roman pottery suggest reoccupation in the 2nd or 3rd centuries CE. The fort is now (after centuries of erosion from the west) about 150 metres from north to south, 110 metres east to west, with an entrance on the south west. Archaeological excavations at Dinas Dinlle in 2019 and 2022 found the remains of structures inside the hillfort. These included a stone-built roundhouse, 13 metres in diameter, with walls more than 2 metres thick, and threshold slabs of quarried slate. It is thought to be the largest roundhouse in Wales. The excavations also found Roman coins and pottery dating from around 200CE to 300CE. The survey with ground-penetrating radar found several round houses and yards connected to the entran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daw's Castle
Daw's Castle (or ''Dart's Castle'' or ''Dane's Castle'') is a sea cliff hillfort just west of Watchet, a harbour town in Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Monument. The name comes from Thomas Dawe, who owned ''castell'' field in 1537. The fort is situated on an east-west cliff about above the sea, on a tapering spur of land bounded by the Washford River to the south, as it flows to the sea at Watchet, about 1 km east. The ramparts of the fort would have formed a semicircle backing on to the sheer cliffs, but coastal erosion has reduced the size of the enclosure, and later destruction by farming, limekilns, and the B3191 road, have left only about of ramparts visible today. The fort may be of Iron Age origin, but was rebuilt and fortified as a ''burh'' by King Alfred, as part of his defense against Viking raids from the Bristol Channel around 878 AD. It would have been one of a chain of forts and coastal lookout posts, connected by the '' Herepath'', or ''military r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stonea Camp
Stonea Camp is an Iron Age multivallate hill fort located at Stonea near March in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Situated on a gravel bank just above sea-level, it is the lowest hill fort in Britain. Around 500 BC, when fortification is thought to have begun at this site, this "hill" would have provided a significant area of habitable land amidst the flooded marshes of the fens. The site exhibits at least two phases of development over several hundred years of settlement, with a D-shaped set of earth banks surrounded by a larger, more formal set of banks and ditches. Roman control The fort is a possible site of the battle of 47 AD mentioned by Tacitus, between the Iceni tribe and a Roman auxiliary force under governor Ostorius Scapula. It has also been speculated that the remains relate to the campaign to subdue the Iceni after the Boudiccan Revolt. Human remains have been found around the site including sword-marked adult bones and the cleaved skull of a child, indicating that th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Oswestry
Old Oswestry () is a large early Iron Age hill fort in the Welsh Marches near Oswestry in north west Shropshire, England. The earthworks, which remain one of the best preserved hill forts in the UK, have been described as "The Stonehenge of the Iron Age Period". After the hill fort was abandoned, it was incorporated into Wat's Dyke by the Mercians during the Early Medieval period. The hill fort was designated as a scheduled monument in 1934. The site is now managed by English Heritage. The accessible hill fort, at ordnance datum, gives panoramic views across North and Mid Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire. History The earliest occupation of the site began in the 8th century BC and continued up until the Roman conquest of Britain. Its inhabitants were either from the tribes of the Cornovii or Ordovices. The complexity of defences suggests there have been several phases of development. In the earliest period, a few round huts were sited on the undefended hillock. Subsequently t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miholjanec
Miholjanec is a village in Croatia and one of the oldest settlements in the country. History Ancient times Miholjanec has been settled since at least the Iron Age. During the late Iron Age, the so-called ''bini populi'' ("two people") lived in the area that would eventually become Miholjanec. Historians are unclear on who exactly the ''bini populi'' were; through the years they have been variously identified as Latin Romans, Scythians, Hebrews, Greeks, Alans, Goths, and Germans. These people built a hill fort on a high plateau. The fort covered and was surrounded by a moat. Middle Ages In the 10th century, a vineyard was planted on a hill near Miholjanec. The vineyard's name is translated as is "the seat of the master of the mountain". This vineyard still stands today. In 1160, a plot of land was donated to the Knights Templar, who built a monastery in nearby Zdelia. This was the earliest historical mention of the Templars in Croatia and Hungary. There is also a river near Zdel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcimoennis
Alcimoennis or ''Alkimoennis'' is the name widely attached to a Celtic ''Oppidum'', or hill fort above the modern town of Kelheim in Bavaria, Germany. The name comes from Ptolemy, who in his ''Geography (Ptolemy), Geography'', only mentioned the name and described the location of the settlement. There is some controversy over the identification of the Kelheim remains with ''Alcimoennis'', but it is still widely accepted. Geography Location The ''oppidum'' was located on the ''Michelsberg (Kelheim), Michelsberg'' hill, dominating the peninsula at the confluence of the Danube and the Altmühl rivers near Kelheim. History The peninsula has been inhabited more or less constantly since 13,000 BCE and the Celts built there as early as 500 BCE. Findings indicate the presence of an early La Tène culture, La Tène period settlement near the Altmühl delta. Numerous storage cellars have been found, interpreted to have been part of three farms with at least 15 buildings from the period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cliff) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank which is typically a point bar. The result of this coupled erosion and sedimentation is the formation of a sinuous course as the channel migrates back and forth across the axis of a floodplain. The zone within which a meandering stream periodically shifts its channel is known as a meander belt. It typically ranges from 15 to 18 times the width of the channel. Over time, meanders migrate downstream, sometimes in such a short time as to create civil engineering challenges for local municipalities attempting to maintain stable roads and bridges.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl Jr., and J.A. Jackson, J.A., eds. (2005) ''Glossary of Geology'' (5th ed.). Alexandria, Virginia, American Geological I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lambert's Castle
Lambert's Castle is an Iron Age hillfort in the county of Dorset in southwest England.''Lamberts Castle, Dorset: Walk of the week'' at www.telegraph.co.uk. Accessed on 22 Mar 2013. Since 1981 it has been designated as a (SSSI) on account of its , and |
Mount Ipf
The Ipf is a mostly treeless mountain ( high), near Bopfingen, Ostalbkreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with a prehistoric hill fort on its top. The fort is situated on an isolated hill, with a flattened summit surrounded by a stone wall, ditch and large counterscarp (outer bank). The overall diameter is about . Extensive ramparts traverse the slopes to protect a large enclosed area and entranceway. There is evidence of occupation from the Bronze Age (Urnfield culture) through the Iron Age to the early Celtic La Tene period, a span of almost a thousand years (1200 BC – 300 BC). The summit was already levelled, fortified and densely settled in the Urnfield period. During the early Iron Age Hallstatt period and into the early La Tène period the Ipf was an important 'princely seat' – a regional centre of power and aristocratic residence with long-distance trade connections, including with Greece and Italy. Gallery File:Ipf , Bopfingen - panoramio.jpg, Ipf mountain File:Ipf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brent Knoll Camp
Brent Knoll Camp is an Iron Age hillfort at Brent Knoll, from Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Scheduled Monument, and is now in the care of the National Trust. The hill is high dominates the low surrounding landscape of the Somerset Levels and is visible from the M5 motorway. Name The word 'knoll' usually means a small hill or hill-top. The origin of the name Brent is unclear, but one possibility is from a word meaning ''burnt'' in Old English, suggesting that the settlement was at some time burnt by the Danes. Sylvanus Urban, ed., ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' (1846)p. 359 "The derivation from burning is not so extravagant, for such, we believe, is the authentic etymology of Brentwood, in Essex". Another proposal is that the name comes from a Celtic term meaning "high place", or even from another Celtic word, ''briant'', meaning law, as the law was anciently promulgated from high places. Another possibility is that the name of Brent simply derive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
