Maiden Castle is one of the largest and most complex Iron Age hillforts in Britain. Its vast multiple ramparts enclose an area the size of 50 football pitches, and the site was home to several hundred people in the Iron Age (800 BC-AD 43). Excavations in the 1930s and 1980s have shed much light on the development of the hilltop, from its origins as a Neolithic enclosure over 6,000 years ago, through many centuries of modification during the Iron Age, to the building of a Romano-British temple here.
NEOLITHIC ACTIVITY
The impressive Iron Age hillfort of Maiden Castle was not the first monument on the hilltop. Excavations have discovered a complex sequence of occupation, beginning over 6,000 years ago.
In the early Neolithic period, the hilltop was cleared of woodland and an oval enclosure of two segmented ditches was built on the eastern plateau. This causewayed enclosure, so-called because of the gaps between the ditches, was one of the earliest types of monuments in Britain.
Finds from excavations suggest that the enclosure was a symbolic space where people gathered to carry out specialised activities such as flint axe production.
Shortly after this enclosure went out of use, a long mound was constructed, flanked by two ditches. Nearly 550 metres long, this extraordinary ‘bank barrow’ can only just be seen today. This barrow possibly represented the ancestors of the community, and may have acted as a marker or boundary in the landscape.
IRON AGE DEFENCES
After a period of reduced activity, the first hillfort was constructed in the early Iron Age. Enclosed by a single rampart, it was built on top of the earlier enclosure.
The fort was later extended to the west to enclose more than double the original area. Throughout this period, extra ramparts were added and the inner rampart was heightened. The entrances to the fort became increasingly complex as more ramparts were added and gateways were redesigned.
In the later Iron Age the defences seem to have become less important, though the inner bank and ditch were refurbished at least once.
THE ‘WAR CEMETERY’ AND THE ROMANS
In the 1930s, excavations by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Tessa Verney Wheeler uncovered many details of the Iron Age hillfort. In the final season of the excavations, Sir Mortimer uncovered an extensive late Iron Age cemetery of more than 52 burials. Some of the male skeletons from this cemetery displayed horrific injuries.
Wheeler believed this was a war cemetery, evidence for a Roman attack on the hillfort following their invasion of Britain in AD 43. While most of the hillforts in Wessex went out of use during the later Iron Age, Maiden Castle was still occupied at the time of the Roman conquest in AD 43. The 2nd Legion Augusta, under their leader Vespasian, is indeed known to have led a campaign through this part of southern England.
ABANDONMENT
Within a few decades of the arrival of the Romans, the hillfort was abandoned. The Romans established the town of Dorchester (Durnovaria) to the north-east as the regional capital of the Durotriges.
In the late 4th century, however, a temple complex was built on the hill. At this time, a fusion of native British and classical Roman religion was becoming popular, and it is common to find shrines located in remote rural locations. The abandoned hillfort provided an ideal setting for this new pagan religion.
More information on Wikipedia.
20 май 2024
