Maiden Castle, Dorset: Largest Hill Fort In Britain
Maiden Castle in Dorset is one of the largest and most complex Iron Age hill forts in Europe – the size of 50 football pitches.
Its huge multiple ramparts, mostly built in the 1st century BC, once protected hundreds of residents.
When it was first built, the gleaming white chalk ramparts would have towered over the surrounding landscape.
Excavations here have revealed much about Maiden Castle’s history, such as a Neolithic enclosure from about 3500 BC and a Roman temple built in the 4th century AD.
The archaeologists also found evidence of a late Iron Age cemetery, where many of those buried had suffered horrific injuries.
According to English Heritage, who maintain the site, the impressive Iron Age hillfort of Maiden Castle was not the first monument on the hilltop.
Excavations have discovered a complex sequence of occupation, beginning over 6,000 years ago.
In the early Neolithic period, the hilltop was cleared of woodland and an oval enclosure of two segmented ditches was built on the eastern plateau.
This causewayed enclosure, so-called because of the gaps between the ditches, was one of the earliest types of monuments in Britain.
Finds from excavations suggest that the enclosure was a symbolic space where people gathered to carry out specialised activities such as flint axe production.
Shortly after this enclosure went out of use, a long mound was constructed, flanked by two ditches. Nearly 550 metres long, this extraordinary ‘bank barrow’ can only just be seen today.
This barrow possibly represented the ancestors of the community, and may have acted as a marker or boundary in the landscape.
After a period of reduced activity, the first hillfort was constructed in the early Iron Age.
Enclosed by a single rampart, it was built on top of the earlier enclosure.
The fort was later extended to the west to enclose more than double the original area.
Throughout this period, extra ramparts were added and the inner rampart was heightened.
The entrances to the fort became increasingly complex as more ramparts were added and gateways were redesigned.
In the later Iron Age, the defences seem to have become less important, though the inner bank and ditch were refurbished at least once.
The nature of the occupation of the hillfort changed considerably as the Iron Age progressed.
At first, the fort was home to a small, self-sufficient community, but in the following 400 years it became the pre-eminent settlement in southern Dorset.
Excavations have discovered early Iron Age post-holes in square arrangements within the hillfort.
These are thought to have been above-ground stores, used for keeping grain produced in the surrounding fields, perhaps to sustain the workforce occupied in building the huge ramparts.
At the height of its occupation, the fort was densely populated and there were many roundhouses. These had central hearths, large pits for storing grain and were often circled by drainage gullies.
Various finds from the site show that activities such as textile production and metalworking were taking place here.
In the middle Iron Age, the layout of the interior of the hillfort was reorganised. Once randomly arranged houses were now built in regimented rows, with traffic guided along roads.
This reorganisation suggests some control existed over social life within the fort.
Later in the Iron Age, this organised system broke down, and the focus of the settlement became once again the eastern end of the hillfort.
At this time, there was increasing trade with the continent, and specialised industries such as metal-working were becoming very important.
Within a few decades of the arrival of the Romans, the hillfort was abandoned.
The Romans established the town of Dorchester (Durnovaria) to the north-east as the regional capital of the Durotriges.
In the late 4th century, however, a temple complex was built on the hill.
At this time, a fusion of native British and classical Roman religion was becoming popular, and it is common to find shrines located in remote rural locations.
The abandoned hillfort provided an ideal setting for this new pagan religion.
The evacuations
In the 1930s, excavations by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Tessa Verney Wheeler uncovered many details of the Iron Age hillfort.
In the final season of the excavations, Sir Mortimer uncovered an extensive late Iron Age cemetery of more than 52 burials.
Some of the male skeletons from this cemetery displayed horrific injuries.
Wheeler believed this was a war cemetery, evidence for a Roman attack on the hillfort following their invasion of Britain in AD 43.
While most of the hillforts in Wessex went out of use during the later Iron Age, Maiden Castle was still occupied at the time of the Roman conquest in AD 43.
The 2nd Legion Augusta, under their leader Vespasian, is indeed known to have led a campaign through this part of southern England.
In the 70 years since Wheeler’s excavations, however, ideas about the cemetery have changed.
Only a small proportion of the individuals had actually died of violent injuries.
The people had been carefully buried with grave goods – not only personal ornaments such as beads, brooches and rings, but also pottery and joints of meat.
Such funerary rituals do not suggest hastily dug graves after a single battle, but a cemetery that was used to bury soldiers and other people over a period of time.
The battle-scarred warriors may have been injured defending Maiden Castle from the Romans, but it is equally likely that they had been involved in local skirmishes.
Across Britain, many hill forts fell out of use in the 100 years around the turn of the millennium.
It has been suggested that this, and the contemporary change in material culture of the Britons, was caused by increased interaction with the Roman Empire.
The developing industries may have resulted in a shift away from the hill fort elites, whose power was based on agriculture.
Such change is not as obvious in Dorset as it is in the rest of Britain, but there is a trend for abandonment of hill forts in the area and a proliferation of small undefended farmsteads, indicating a migration of the population.
Someone who recently visited this historic landmark said: “Wow - it’s magnificent, and the views!
”Can certainly see why they chose this spot. The scale of the earthworks are staggering, all of that with a primitive pick and shovel (how?).
”It really hits home if you stand in the bottom of a ditch then try and walk up a bank. A shame half of the information boards were missing.
”Make sure you walk around the perimeter bank to appreciate it, if you just walk across the middle you won’t see the ramps and ditches in their full glory.”
Another person added: “My more recent visit included the full circular walk around the top of the grassy fort. It takes about 1 hour to the full round with a few short steep ups and downs.
”Walking boots or solid footwear is recommended, if nothing else to protect against sheep poo of which there is a lot.
”Largish free carpark and no entry fee. If you like your history , the Devon Regimental Museum in Dorchester is about 5 min drive away.”
If yous like to visit, the address is: Maiden Castle Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT2 9PP.
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