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Danebury is an
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
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. So ...
in
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
, England, about north-west of
Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
(). Retrieved on 23 July 2008. The site, covering , was excavated by
Barry Cunliffe Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe (born 10 December 1939), usually known as Sir Barry Cunliffe, is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. Since 2007, he has been ...
in the 1970s. Danebury is considered a
type site In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and H ...
for hillforts, and was important in developing the understanding of hillforts, as very few others have been so intensively excavated. Built in the 6th century BC, the fort was used for almost 500 years, during a period when the number of hillforts in
Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...
greatly increased. Danebury was remodelled several times, making it more complex and resulting in it becoming a "developed" hillfort. It is a
Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...
and a Local Nature Reserve called Danebury Hillfort. The Scheduled Monument is surrounded by a
Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...
, designated as Danebury Hill.


Investigation

Until the 19th century very little was known about hillforts, as none had been excavated and their original purpose had been long forgotten. In the
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
period, their construction was attributed variously to iconic figures such as
King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...
, King Alfred, the Danes,
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
, and even giants. By the 18th century, it was widely thought that hillforts were
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
in origin.Cunliffe (1983), p. 11. Interest in hillforts was roused by the investigation of a hillfort at Worlebury Hill in the early-19th century.Cunliffe (1983), p. 12. The first excavation at Danebury was carried out in November 1859, under
antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...
Augustus Wollaston Franks. His workers cleared out an Iron Age pit that was deep and in diameter, although they were not able to ascertain its purpose. The first widespread investigation of hillforts was carried out in the second half of the 19th century under Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Pitt-Rivers' work on the hillforts of
Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
led him to the conclusion that most hillforts were built in the
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
, and it paved the way for future work on hillforts. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was "hillfort mania" in British archaeology; by 1940, about 80 had been archaeologically excavated. In the late 1960s,
Barry Cunliffe Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe (born 10 December 1939), usually known as Sir Barry Cunliffe, is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. Since 2007, he has been ...
decided to examine a single hillfort and its surrounding territory in an attempt to shed light on Iron Age society, its politics, and population. With the permission of the site's owner,
Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council (HCC) is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hampshire in England. The council was created in 1889. The county council provides county-level services to eleven of the thirteen districts geo ...
, archaeological excavations began in 1969 and continued until 1988. Over the twenty seasons archaeologists spent examining the site, they looked at the defences and the gateway, and excavated 57% of the interior, where the remains of wattle and timber houses were discovered. It was the lengthiest investigation of any hillfort in western Europe. A further non-invasive survey was carried out in 1997, as part of the Wessex Hillforts Project, using a
magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...
.


History

There is no historical record of events in Iron Age Britain, so archaeological investigation is the only way to reconstruct the history of Danebury and other forts. It is impossible to state with certainty every significant event in the hillfort’s history, but where an event leaves an archaeologically identifiable trace, a general chronology can be established, although dates are much less easy to establish. The hillfort was occupied from the mid-6th century BC until around 100 BC,Cunliffe (1983), p. 49. and the defences were remodelled numerous times. Early in its life the site consisted of a single ditch encompassing an area of about , with two gateways, one in the south-west and another in the east; two more rings of ditches were added later. The north part of the fort was occupied by four-post structures, probably granaries, which were later replaced by storage pits, and in the south part, there were roundhouses in between granaries and storage pits.Cunliffe (1983), p. 67. When Danebury was built in the 6th century BC, it coincided with the construction of several other hillforts in the Wessex region, all of a similar size and layout. The first
phase Phase or phases may refer to: Science *State of matter, or phase, one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist *Phase (matter), a region of space throughout which all physical properties are essentially uniform *Phase space, a mathematica ...
of defences dates from around 550 BC,Cunliffe (1983), p. 66. and consists of a
rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...
behind a ditch. When the ditch was cut, the
chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
rubble fill was used to build the rampart, along with some of the local
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
soil. The material was contained by timber, making it a box rampart with a vertical face. The east gateway was a simple gap in the defences with a timber gatehouse (the south-west gateway has not been excavated).Cunliffe (1983), p. 57. At least 50 years after the rampart was first built, it was raised with the addition of more chalk material; this has been interpreted as maintenance work when the ramparts began to collapse as the timber box started to rot. Around the same time the ramparts were altered, the east gateway was widened to . The gates were burnt down not long after the east gateway was altered. For a short time the hillfort was gateless; when the east gateway was repaired the passage from the entrance was lengthened. In around 400 BC the third phase heightened the rampart and at the same time the ditch was re-dug. The V-shaped ditch was deep and between and wide; the size of the previous ditch is unknown as re-cutting the ditch has made it hard to ascertain. The wooden box was abandoned in favour of allowing the rampart to slope down to the ditch, but to provide protection the rampart would probably have been surmounted by a
dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...
wall made from flint. From the top of the ramparts to the bottom of the ditch is about .Cunliffe (1983), p. 53. Although the rampart and ditch were in use for a long time, during this period the east gateway was remodelled twice, making it longer, and creating earthworks on each side of the approach.Cunliffe (1983), p. 58. The southwest gateway was given extra defences in the form of earthworks before being abandoned and filled in. Also in this period, the southern part of the fort became populated with four- and six-post structures, probably granaries, replacing the earlier roundhouses. The fort's centre was probably used for
shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...
s while houses were mainly built close to the ramparts. A new series of earthworks was created beyond the already existing ring, turning Danebury into a complex multivallate (more than one series of earthworks) fort. These earthworks added to the fort and were probably used to protect livestock. Danebury was abandoned around 100 BC, in common with the trend across Britain for hillforts to fall out of use around that time.Cunliffe (1983), p. 74. Once again, the east gate was burnt down, although this time it was not replaced. Most of the inhabitants deserted Danebury, and groups of bodies were disposed of in charnel pits. The site continued in use, but on a much smaller scale than before. Buildings were left to decay and the interior of the fort became used for grazing.Cunliffe (1983), p. 73. By the start of the 1st century AD, the settlement of Danebury was probably nothing more than a single farm. Image:Danebury encircling ditch 2007.jpg, Inside the ditch surrounding Danebury Image:DaneburyRingTrees.JPG, Trees within Danebury


Hillfort

Danebury Hill, on top of which the hillfort sits, rises to . The hillfort dominates the local landscape, which rarely rises above , and has commanding views of the area. The surrounding country has light soil that would have been easily cultivated. Territory commanded by Danebury included areas of forest, pasture in the uplands, and access to water sources in the form of the
River Test The River Test is a chalk stream in Hampshire in the south of England. It rises at Ashe near Basingstoke and flows southwards for to Southampton Water. Settlements on the Test include the towns of Stockbridge and Romsey. The river's vall ...
. To the west runs Wallop Brook which flows south east into the River Test. The nearby hillforts of Figsbury Ring, Quarley Hill and Bury Hill were probably established around the same time as Danebury. All of a similar size, the hillforts were generally equally spaced, commanding similar sized territories and resources. There is some debate whether hillforts were purely defensive structures, and to what extent they were occupied. Cunliffe interprets the ramparts as essentially defensive, although he concedes that they may have been a means of displaying wealth and power, as Danebury would have been visible for miles around. The ramparts were the strongest part of the fort, with the entrances the weakest. The complex gateways support the view that the site was militaristic; the long, curving east entrance maximised the time it would have taken for attackers to enter the fort and would have allowed defenders on the ramparts more time to hurl missiles, while the southwest entrance narrowed, forcing attackers together and causing disarray. Iron Age society was, in Cunliffe's view, "effervescent ... essentially unstable, and prone to conflict", and he uses the possible military nature of hillforts to support this view. The burning of the gates was probably the result of an attack, and the charnel pits dating from the end of the intense period of Danebury's occupation contain about 100 bodies, many with injuries that appear to have been inflicted by weapons such as spears and swords. Surrounding Danebury hillfort are many smaller farmsteads, between and in size. The fort was supplied with grain from the surrounding farmsteads, and could hold 20 times more food than the average farmstead, indicating that Danebury had a higher status than local farmsteads.Cunliffe (1983), p. 167. This is further supported by the fact that the hillfort was used as a "central place" where people could gather to trade and store commodities. Periods of intensified activity in hillforts such as Danebury coinciding with depopulation of the surrounding landscape could indicate the increasing importance of hillforts in society, or that there were times of unrest when people would retreat to the relative safety of a hillfort's ramparts. While other hillforts were abandoned in the 4th century BC, in about 400 BC Danebury grew into what is known as a "developed hillfort". It was possibly inhabited by a king or chieftain and his family, retinue, and craftsmen, and may have housed a population of 200–350. There are traces of craft and industry on a large scale, and use of the site by a social elite is indicated by the presence of shrines in the centre of the fort.Cunliffe (1983), pp. 167–168.


Meteorite

The Danebury meteorite is an H5 ordinary
chondrite A chondrite is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified by either melting or planetary differentiation, differentiation of the parent body. They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar Syste ...
meteorite found in 1974 during the excavation of a grain pit at the hillfort. Originally classified as a lump of slag, it was identified as a meteorite about a decade later. It was found in a grain pit between two layers of infill with no particular evidence of it having been placed there, so it may have fallen directly into the pit. Carbon dating produced a date of 748–230 BC.With an uncalibrated date of 2350 ± 120yr BP The meteorite was originally held by Oxford University but in 2014 was transferred to the Hampshire County Council Arts and Museums Service.


See also

*
Hillforts in Britain 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, Briti ...
* List of hillforts in England


Notes


References

;Bibliography * * *


External links


Danebury Environs Programme 1989-95Video of Prof Barry Cunliffe describing Danebury
{{Local Nature Reserves in Hampshire History of Hampshire Hill forts in Hampshire Scheduled monuments in Hampshire Andover, Hampshire Former populated places in Hampshire Local Nature Reserves in Hampshire Iron Age sites in Hampshire