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Evergreen Dazed

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Hillforts & Barrows

Sep 16, 2012, 11:33

I did some mushrooms this morning, along with some scrambled egg, bacon, black pudding and fried bread and, sat in the afterglow with a cup of PG Tips, my mind naturally wandered to the subject I know least about - The prehistory of the British Isles.
Taking a book down from the shelf (a pointless exercise, I know, and tricky with a distended belly groaning under the weight of danepak) I began to read, for the first time ever, about these things called 'Hillforts'.

"Stap me vitals" I grunted in my best sub blandings, I'm sure there's probably material within these pages I could make into a song title. With the excitement of it all I naturally began to beat my chest like king kong (knocking over a bottle of ketchup in the process) and to call upon the energies present within the tropicana I had imbibed to bring me inspiration for another mega song.

It didn't happen for me.

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I'll keep this short as poss.
I'm interested in the relationship between Hillforts and barrows. Obviously with surving barrows tending to be in higher places and a good number of Hillforts being of the same persuasion, it might seem unsurprising to see the two in close proximity. Ford-Johnston suggested the builders of early Hillforts may have used the 'sacredness' of the barrows as part of the sites defences.

At ivinghoe in Beds, along with a few other examples I can think of, there is a huge bowl barrow within the hillfort itself. This seems strange to me. I could undetstand using the barrows outside of a fort as defence, in the sense that Ford-Johnston used the word, but to have something of such 'power' within the living space itself seems at odds with the idea of 'sacredness'.

Of course, the function of Hillforts in general is far from clear and Ivinghoe is a very early example, so I wonder what the 'non avoidance', if you like, in this instance could indicate?

If the builders of Ivinghoe were airily unconcerned about the ancestor(s) outside their huts front door, you might imagine they would have destroyed the thing. The hillfort is small, the barrow is not.
On the other hand, if they felt it sacred, had great respect, as appears to be the case (it's still there!) it is hard to imagine them 'living among it'.

Even if it is a totally different scenario, and the people of Ivinghoe hillfort raised the barrow themselves, it is hard to imagine why they chose to put it within the living space when there are others dotted around the hill, outside of the fort.

I'd really like to hear any thoughts people might have.

Replies:
Re: Hillforts & Barrows (tiompan)
Re: Hillforts & Barrows (bladup)
Re: Hillforts & Barrows (juamei)
Re: Hillforts & Barrows (tjj)
Re: Hillforts & Barrows (The Eternal)
Re: Hillforts & Barrows (GLADMAN)
Re: Hillforts & Barrows (Hob)

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