Broxmouth Hillfort

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Broxmouth Hillfort near Dunbar in East Lothian , Scotland , was almost completely excavated in 18 months in the 1970s before a cement plant was built. The excavation marks one of the first major rescue excavations in Scotland, but it went unpublished for a long time. There is evidence of human activity from around 3000 BC. However, the place was continuously occupied from the early Iron Age until it was abandoned during the Roman occupation. In Hill Fort round huts well preserved, built-consuming additions and were burial of the Iron Age discovered.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the hard volcanic rock was sought after as a building material and there were quarries at North Berwick Law and Traprain Law. There is evidence of festivals, war and trade - both with neighboring settlements and across the sea. The residents kept cattle and sheep and did deep-sea fishing while producing early steel. The Iron Age structure was limited to a few fragmentary moat elements and a palisade moat. The main building in Hillfort was built around 400 BC. And rebuilt several times in the following 200 years. Ultimately, the Hillfort had at least four ramparts and moats and some complex gate structures. The metal finds point to the earliest use of steel in the British Isles .

Locations of this quality are extremely rare. There is one published concentration in the south of England: Balksbury, Danebury , Maiden Castle and South Cadbury. Outside of this region there are very few locations of such high quality.

literature

  • James Dyer: Hillforts of England and Wales (= Shire archeology. 16). Revised edition. Shire Publications, Princes Risborough 1992, ISBN 0-7478-0180-0 .
  • James Forde-Johnston: Hillforts of the Iron Age in England and Wales. A Survey of the Surface Evidence. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1976, ISBN 0-85323-381-0 .
  • Ian Armit, Jo McKenzie: An Inherited Place. Broxmouth Hillfort and the South-East Scottish Iron Age. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2013, ISBN 978-1-908332-05-9 .

Web links

Coordinates: 55 ° 59 ′ 18.4 "  N , 2 ° 28 ′ 50.4"  W.