Maiden Bower 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 ...

near

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, England. The site, which also has traces of a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

causewayed enclosure A causewayed enclosure is a type of large prehistoric Earthworks (Archaeology), earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe. It is an enclosure (archaeology), enclosure marked out by ditches and banks, with a number of causeways crossing ...

, 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 ...

Description

The fort is situated on a plateau, and there is a disused chalk quarry on the north-western side. The fort has a single rampart, height up to , about of which has been lost to the quarry. It is roughly circular, about in diameter, enclosing an area of about . The interior has been under cultivation in recent times. There is an external ditch, but this is infilled and no longer visible. It has been revealed in section on the side of the chalk quarry; it was V-shaped, about deep and wide.Richard Wainwright. ''A Guide to the Prehistoric Remains in Britain. Volume 1: South and East''. Constable, 1979. Page 283. Maiden Bower hillfort Digital Terrain Model

Maiden Bower hillfort Digital Terrain Model

There is an original entrance gap on the south-east, and other later gaps. There was excavation by Worthington G. Smith, and the owner of the site, in 1913 at the south-east entrance. They found features later interpreted as the west wall of a timber gateway. Across the entrance was found a large pit with the disarticulated remains of about 50 persons, thought to be a ritual mass reburial rather than an indication of warfare.

Causewayed enclosure

Worthington Smith, as the quarry was encroaching, investigated features outside the rampart between the 1890s and 1915. He found a segmented ditch, where there were finds of flint tools and pottery. It was established in the 1930s that the finds were

, and that the ditch was a Neolithic

, over part of which the hillfort was later constructed.

Romano-British

Before there was excavation, Roman coins and other objects had been found in the area of the site. Worthington Smith in 1907 discovered a small early Roman cremation cemetery on the north-west side of the fort where the quarry was encroaching;

Samian ware Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas ...

and other pottery of the period was found. In 1991, Romano-British pottery was found within the fort on the western side during

fieldwalking In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists (often landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human c ...

, and a

geophysical survey Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the ...

showed a building on the western side; it is thought that it may have been a Roman temple.

Turf maze

The 18th-century antiquarian

William Stukeley William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English antiquarian, physician and Anglican clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of archaeology, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric ...

, in a discussion of

Julian's Bower Julian's Bower or Julian Bower is a name given to turf mazes in several different parts of England. Only one of this name still exists, at Alkborough in North Lincolnshire. It has also been known by corrupted forms of the name, such as "Gillian's ...

s, thought they were once sites of

turf maze Historically, a turf maze is a labyrinth made by cutting a convoluted path into a level area of short grass, sod, turf or lawn. Some had names such as Mizmaze, Troy Town, The Walls of Troy, Julian's Bower, or Shepherd's Race. This is the type of m ...

s, and regarded Maiden Bower as having been such a site.W. H. Matthews. ''Mazes and Labyriths: Chapter XI. Turf Labyrinths'' (1922). Page 91
Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 4 January 2021.

References

{{Iron Age hillforts in England Hill forts in Bedfordshire Scheduled monuments in Bedfordshire Causewayed enclosures

Description

Causewayed enclosure

Romano-British

Turf maze

See also

References