Danebury
That in the 6th century BC . Built in AD Danebury (also called Danbury Camp) is an Iron Age Hill Fort , south of Andover in Hampshire in England . The approximately five hectare complex was excavated by Barry Cunliffe between 1969 and 1988 . He made the longest investigation of a hill fort in Western Europe. Another study was carried out in 1997 as part of the Wessex Hillforts project using a magnetometer . The exploration of Danebury was important to understanding Hillforts, as few facilities have been excavated so extensively.
Danebury has been rebuilt several times during its 500 years of use, becoming more complex and becoming a "developed" hill fort. Today it is listed as a site of special scientific interest and is also a local nature reserve.
Interest in Hillforts was sparked in the early 19th century when the Worlebury Camp was excavated . In the 1920s and 1930s there was a real "Hillfort mania" and by 1940 about 80 mounds had been excavated. There are around 3,300 hillforts or hillfort-like enclosures in the UK . Most of them are concentrated in specific regions: south and south west England, the west coast of Wales in the Welsh Marshes and in the border region of Scotland . Hillforts varied widely in size, with the majority covering less than an acre. In rare cases they reach over 80 hectares. Danebury Hillfort is located on a 143 m high hill. The area, which seldom rises above 100 m, dominates. The surrounding land has light soils, includes wooded areas and pastures, and has access to water in the form of the River Test and its tributaries.
The first excavation in Danebury was carried out in 1859 by the antiquarian Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897). His workers found an Iron Age pit that was about 2.0 meters deep and 1.5 meters in diameter. But one was unable to determine its purpose. The first major survey of the hill was carried out in the second half of the 19th century by Augustus Pitt-Rivers (1827–1900). The work in Sussex led Pitt-Rivers to conclude that most of the Hillforts were built during the Iron Age.
Sites of this quality are rare. There is a concentration in southern England: Balksbury , Maiden Castle and South Cadbury . Outside of this region, Broxmouth Hillfort in East Lothian is the only place of such high quality. The nearby hill forts of similar size ( Figsbury Ring , Quarley Hill, and Bury Hill ) were likely built around the same time. There is a debate about whether Hillforts were purely defensive or religious structures. Barry Cunliffe interprets them as essentially defensive, although he admits that they show wealth and power as they were widely visible.
literature
- James Dyer: Hillforts of England and Wales . 1999, ISBN 0747801800
- 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 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 8 ′ 15 ″ N , 1 ° 32 ′ 20 ″ W.