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Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort
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moss
moss
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Edited Apr 13, 2011, 11:05
Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort
Apr 13, 2011, 10:02
GLADMAN wrote:




Must admit I've been intruigued by the possible dual 'defence/ceremonial' aspect of hillforts in general for several years now. A number I've seen (e.g Cow Castle, Chesters) would appear to have been sited by - shall we say - people not overly endowed with military genuis.

Anyone any thoughts?


Defence/ceremonial, and also a place for annually gathering livestock maybe. If I was to categorise; large hillforts like Maiden Castle and Danebury are 'proper' hillforts, and there is a lot that falls in between such as smaller defensive settlements.
The coastline of West Wales is littered with promontory forts, but really they are small places of a few huts defended by a ditch/bank and probably there to protect from raids of their neighbours.
Three Cotswold escarpment hillforts, Horton Camp, Sodbury Camp and Solsbury Hill are all slightly different. The first two have substantial banks (Sodbury was later fortified by the romans) and sit on the edge of the escarpment, whilst Solsbury is situated on a hill.
Yet just up the road on the Lansdown you have a 'hillfort' which used to have three barrows inside, so was that an animal enclosure?

edit; few years back someone started a hillfort site which never took off, but they run into hundreds all over the country its almost impossible..
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Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (GLADMAN)
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