Roddenbury Hillfort

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Roddenbury Hillfort floor plan

Roddenbury Hill Fort is an Outbound Wallburg in the municipality Selwood in the English county of Somerset . The Iron Age castle, surrounded by just one wall, is now a Scheduled Monument . It is near the later built Hales Castle .

The area of ​​the Wallburg is 0.84 hectares. In some places the wall was destroyed, in others it is still up to 1.6 meters high and is protected by a 1.8 meter deep trench.

background

Wall castles were built at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age , around the 1st millennium BC. The reason for its spread into Britain and its purpose have often been debated. It was thought that they could have been military installations that could have arisen in response to invasions from mainland Europe, buildings erected by the invaders, or a military response to social tensions caused by and resulting from a growing population Pressure on agriculture had been caused. The majority view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron has led to social change in Britain. Deposits of iron ore have been found in various locations in addition to the tin and copper ore used to make bronze. As a result, the trade structures changed and the old elites lost their economic and social status. Power was shifting into the hands of other groups of people. Believing population growth also played a role, archaeologist Barry Cunliffe noted that “[the forts] provided defenses for the community as pressures [of population growth] discharged into open hostilities. But I don't think they were built because of the war. They functioned as a defensive bulwark in times of tension and no doubt some of them were attacked and destroyed, but this was not the only or even the decisive factor in their construction. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Roddenbury Hillfort, Longleat Wood, Selwood . In: Somerset Historic Environment Record . Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 19, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / webapp1.somerset.gov.uk
  2. Jump up ↑ Andrew Payne, Mark Corney, Barry Cunliffe: The Wessex Hillforts Project: Extensive Survey of Hillfort Interiors in Central Southern England . English Heritage. 2007.
  3. ^ Niall M. Sharples: English Heritage Book of Maiden Castle . BT Batsford, London 1991. ISBN 0-7134-6083-0 . Pp. 71-72.
  4. ↑ Time Team: Swords, skulls and strongholds . Channel 4. May 19, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2015.

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 42 "  N , 2 ° 17 ′ 28"  W.