Danebury
Encyclopedia
Danebury is an Iron Age
hill fort
in Hampshire
in England, about 19 kilometre north-west of Winchester . The site, covering 5 hectares (12.4 acre), was excavated by Barry Cunliffe
in the 1970s. Danebury is considered a type-site for hill forts, and was important in developing the understanding of hill forts, as very few others have been so intensively excavated.
Built in the 6th century BC, the fort was in use for almost 500 years, during a period when the number of hill forts in Wessex
greatly increased. Danebury was remodelled several times, making it more complex and resulting in it becoming a "developed" hill fort. It is now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument
and a Site of Special Scientific Interest
.
Until the 19th century very little was known about hill fort
s, as none had been excavated and their original purpose had been long forgotten. In the medieval
period, their construction was attributed variously to iconic figures such as King Arthur
, King Alfred, the Danes, Julius Caesar
, and even giants. By the 18th century, it was widely thought that hill forts were Roman
in origin. Interest in hill forts was roused by the investigation of a hill fort at Worlebury Hill
in the early-19th century. The first excavation at Danebury was carried out in November 1859, under antiquarian
Augustus Wollaston Franks
. His workers cleared out an Iron Age pit that was 2 metres (7 ft) deep and 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter, although they were not able to ascertain its purpose.
The first widespread investigation of hill forts was carried out in the second half of the 19th century under Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Pitt-River's work on the hill forts of Sussex
led him to the conclusion that most hill forts were built in the Iron Age
, and it paved the way for future work on hill forts. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was "hill fort mania" in British archaeology; by 1940, about 80 had been archaeologically excavated.
In the late 1960s, Barry Cunliffe decided to examine a single hill fort and its surrounding territory in an attempt to shed light on Iron Age society, its politics, and population. With the permission of the site's owner, Hampshire
County Council, archaeological excavations began in 1969 and continued until 1988. Over the twenty seasons archaeologists spent examining the site, they looked at the defences and the gateway, and excavated 57% of the interior, where the remains of wattle
and timber houses were discovered. It was the lengthiest investigation of any hill fort in western Europe.
A further non-invasive survey was carried out in 1997, as part of the Wessex Hillforts Project, using a magnetometer
.
There is no historical record of events in Iron Age Britain, so archaeological investigation is the only way to reconstruct the history of Danebury, and other such hill forts. It is impossible to state with certainty every significant event in the hill fort’s history, but where an event leaves an archaeologically identifiable trace, a general chronology can be established, although dates are much less easy to establish. The hill fort was occupied from the mid-6th century BC until around 100 BC, and the defences were remodelled numerous times. Early in its life the site consisted of a single ditch encompassing an area of about 5 ha (12.4 acre), with two gateways, one in the south-west and another in the east; two more rings of ditches were added later. The north part of the fort was occupied by four-post structures, probably granaries
, which were later replaced by storage pits, and in the south part, there were roundhouses
in between granaries and storage pits. When Danebury was built in the 6th century BC, it coincided with the construction of several other hillforts in the Wessex region, all of a similar size and layout.
The first phase
of defences dates from around 550 BC, and consists of a rampart
behind a ditch. When the ditch was cut, the chalk
rubble fill was used to build the rampart, along with some of the local clay
soil. The material was contained by timber, making it a box rampart with a vertical face. The east gateway was a simple 4 m (13.1 ft) wide gap in the defences with a timber gatehouse (the south-west gateway has not been excavated). At least 50 years after the rampart was first built, it was raised with the addition of more chalk material; this has been interpreted as maintenance work due to the ramparts beginning to collapse as the timber box started to rot. Around the same time the ramparts were altered, the east gateway was widened to 9 m (29.5 ft). The gates were burnt down not long after the east gateway was altered. For a short time the hill fort was gateless, when the east gateway was repaired the passage from the entrance was lengthened.
In around 400 BC the third phase heightened the rampart and at the same time the ditch was re-dug. The V-shaped ditch was 6 m (19.7 ft) deep and between 11 m (36.1 ft) and 12 m (39.4 ft) wide; the size of the previous ditch is unknown as re-cutting the ditch has made it hard to ascertain. The wooden box was abandoned in favour of allowing the rampart to slope down to the ditch, but to provide protection the rampart would probably have been surmounted by a dry stone
wall made from flint. From the top of the ramparts to the bottom of the ditch is about 16 m (52.5 ft). Although the rampart and ditch were in use for a long time, during this period the east gateway was remodelled twice, making it longer, and creating earthwork
s on each side of the approach. The south-west gateway was given extra defences in the form of earthworks before being abandoned and filled in. Also in this period, the southern part of the fort became populated with four- and six-post structures, probably granaries, replacing the earlier roundhouses. The fort's centre was probably used for shrine
s while houses were mainly built close to the ramparts. A new series of earthworks was created beyond the already existing ring, turning Danebury into a complex multivallate (more than one series of earthworks) fort. They added 5.3 ha (13.1 acre) to the fort and probably were used to protect livestock.
Danebury was abandoned around 100 BC, in common with the trend across Britain for hill forts to fall out of use around that time. Once again, the east gate was burnt down, although this time it was not replaced. Most of the inhabitants deserted Danebury, and groups of bodies were disposed of in charnel pits
. The site continued in use, but on a much smaller scale than before. Buildings were left to decay and the interior of the fort became used for grazing. By the start of the 1st century AD, the settlement of Danebury was probably nothing more than a single farm.
Danebury Hill, on top of which the hill fort sits, rises to 143 m (469.2 ft). The hill fort dominates the local landscape, which rarely rises above 100 m (328.1 ft), and has commanding views of the area. The surrounding country has light soil that would have been easily cultivated. Territory commanded by Danebury included areas of forest, pasture in the uplands, and access to water sources in the form of the River Test
. To the west runs Wallop Brook which flows south east into the River Test.
The nearby hill forts of Figsbury Ring
, Quarley Hill
, and Bury Hill were probably established around the same time as Danebury. All of a similar size, the hillforts were generally equally spaced, commanding similar sized territories and resources. There is some debate whether hill forts were purely defensive structures, and to what extent they were occupied. Cunliffe interprets the ramparts as essentially defensive, although he concedes that they may have been a means of displaying wealth and power, as Danebury would have been visible for miles around. The ramparts were the strongest part of the fort, with the entrances the weakest. The complex gateways support the view that the site was militaristic; the long, curving east entrance maximised the time it would have taken for attackers to enter the fort and would have allowed defenders on the ramparts more time to hurl missiles, while the south-west entrance narrowed forcing attackers together and causing disarray. Iron Age society was, in Cunliffe's view, "effervescent ... essentially unstable, and prone to conflict", and he uses the possible military nature of hill forts to support this view. The burning of the gates was probably the result of an attack, and the charnel pits dating from the end of the intense period of Danebury's occupation contain about 100 bodies, many with injuries that appear to have been inflicted by weapons such as spears and swords.
Surrounding Danebury hill fort are many smaller farmsteads, between 1 ha (2.5 acre) and 2 ha (4.9 acre) in size. The fort was supplied with grain from the surrounding farmsteads, and could hold 20 times more food than the average farmstead, indicating Danebury had a higher status than local farmsteads. This is further supported by the fact that the hill fort was used as a "central place" where people could gather to trade and store commodities. Periods of intensified activity in hill forts such as Danebury coinciding with depopulation of the surrounding landscape could indicate the increasing importance of hill forts in society, or that there were times of unrest when people would retreat to the relative safety of a hill fort's ramparts. While other hill forts were abandoned in the 4th century , in about 400 BC Danebury grew into what is known as a "developed hill fort". Danebury's importance in the landscape increased over time, as demonstrated by its continued use until around 100 AD. It was possibly inhabited by a king or chieftain and his family, retinue, and craftsmen, and may have housed a population of 200–350. There are traces of craft and industry on a large scale, and use of the site by a social elite is indicated by the presence of shrines in the centre of the fort.
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
in England, about 19 kilometre north-west of Winchester . The site, covering 5 hectares (12.4 acre), was excavated by Barry Cunliffe
Barry Cunliffe
Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, CBE, known professionally as Barry Cunliffe is a former Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, a position held from 1972 to 2007...
in the 1970s. Danebury is considered a type-site for hill forts, and was important in developing the understanding of hill forts, as very few others have been so intensively excavated.
Built in the 6th century BC, the fort was in use for almost 500 years, during a period when the number of hill forts in Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
greatly increased. Danebury was remodelled several times, making it more complex and resulting in it becoming a "developed" hill fort. It is now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...
and a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
.
Investigation
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
s, as none had been excavated and their original purpose had been long forgotten. In the medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
period, their construction was attributed variously to iconic figures such as King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
, King Alfred, the Danes, Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, and even giants. By the 18th century, it was widely thought that hill forts were Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
in origin. Interest in hill forts was roused by the investigation of a hill fort at Worlebury Hill
Worlebury Hill
Worlebury Hill is the name given to an upland area lying between the flatlands of Weston-super-Mare and the Kewstoke area of North Somerset, England. Worlebury Hill's rises from sea level to its highest point of , and the western end of the hill forms a peninsula, jutting out into the Bristol...
in the early-19th century. The first excavation at Danebury was carried out in November 1859, under antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
Augustus Wollaston Franks
Augustus Wollaston Franks
Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB was an English antiquary and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie Caygill, historian of the British Museum, as "arguably the most important collector in the history of the British Museum, and one of the greatest collectors of his age".-Early...
. His workers cleared out an Iron Age pit that was 2 metres (7 ft) deep and 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter, although they were not able to ascertain its purpose.
The first widespread investigation of hill forts was carried out in the second half of the 19th century under Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Pitt-River's work on the hill forts of Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
led him to the conclusion that most hill forts were built in the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, and it paved the way for future work on hill forts. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was "hill fort mania" in British archaeology; by 1940, about 80 had been archaeologically excavated.
In the late 1960s, Barry Cunliffe decided to examine a single hill fort and its surrounding territory in an attempt to shed light on Iron Age society, its politics, and population. With the permission of the site's owner, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
County Council, archaeological excavations began in 1969 and continued until 1988. Over the twenty seasons archaeologists spent examining the site, they looked at the defences and the gateway, and excavated 57% of the interior, where the remains of wattle
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
and timber houses were discovered. It was the lengthiest investigation of any hill fort in western Europe.
A further non-invasive survey was carried out in 1997, as part of the Wessex Hillforts Project, using a magnetometer
Magnetometer
A magnetometer is a measuring instrument used to measure the strength or direction of a magnetic field either produced in the laboratory or existing in nature...
.
History
Granary
A granary is a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed. In ancient or primitive granaries, pottery is the most common use of storage in these buildings. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals.-Early origins:From ancient times grain...
, which were later replaced by storage pits, and in the south part, there were roundhouses
Roundhouse (dwelling)
The roundhouse is a type of house with a circular plan, originally built in western Europe before the Roman occupation using walls made either of stone or of wooden posts joined by wattle-and-daub panels and a conical thatched roof. Roundhouses ranged in size from less than 5m in diameter to over 15m...
in between granaries and storage pits. When Danebury was built in the 6th century BC, it coincided with the construction of several other hillforts in the Wessex region, all of a similar size and layout.
The first phase
Archaeological phase
Archaeological phase and phasing refers to the logical reduction of contexts recorded during excavation to near contemporary archaeological horizons that represent a distinct "phase" of previous land use. These often but not always will be a representation of a former land surface or occupation...
of defences dates from around 550 BC, and consists of a rampart
Defensive wall
A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements...
behind a ditch. When the ditch was cut, the chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
rubble fill was used to build the rampart, along with some of the local clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
soil. The material was contained by timber, making it a box rampart with a vertical face. The east gateway was a simple 4 m (13.1 ft) wide gap in the defences with a timber gatehouse (the south-west gateway has not been excavated). At least 50 years after the rampart was first built, it was raised with the addition of more chalk material; this has been interpreted as maintenance work due to the ramparts beginning to collapse as the timber box started to rot. Around the same time the ramparts were altered, the east gateway was widened to 9 m (29.5 ft). The gates were burnt down not long after the east gateway was altered. For a short time the hill fort was gateless, when the east gateway was repaired the passage from the entrance was lengthened.
Dry stone
Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully selected interlocking...
wall made from flint. From the top of the ramparts to the bottom of the ditch is about 16 m (52.5 ft). Although the rampart and ditch were in use for a long time, during this period the east gateway was remodelled twice, making it longer, and creating earthwork
Earthworks (engineering)
Earthworks are engineering works created through the moving or processing of quantities of soil or unformed rock.- Civil engineering use :Typical earthworks include roads, railway beds, causeways, dams, levees, canals, and berms...
s on each side of the approach. The south-west gateway was given extra defences in the form of earthworks before being abandoned and filled in. Also in this period, the southern part of the fort became populated with four- and six-post structures, probably granaries, replacing the earlier roundhouses. The fort's centre was probably used for shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
s while houses were mainly built close to the ramparts. A new series of earthworks was created beyond the already existing ring, turning Danebury into a complex multivallate (more than one series of earthworks) fort. They added 5.3 ha (13.1 acre) to the fort and probably were used to protect livestock.
Danebury was abandoned around 100 BC, in common with the trend across Britain for hill forts to fall out of use around that time. Once again, the east gate was burnt down, although this time it was not replaced. Most of the inhabitants deserted Danebury, and groups of bodies were disposed of in charnel pits
Charnel house
A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves...
. The site continued in use, but on a much smaller scale than before. Buildings were left to decay and the interior of the fort became used for grazing. By the start of the 1st century AD, the settlement of Danebury was probably nothing more than a single farm.
Interpretation
River Test
The River Test is a river in Hampshire, England. The river has a total length of 40 miles and it flows through downland from its source near Ashe, 10 km to the west of Basingstoke , to the sea at the head of Southampton Water...
. To the west runs Wallop Brook which flows south east into the River Test.
The nearby hill forts of Figsbury Ring
Figsbury Ring
Figsbury Ring is a 11.2 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1975. It is owned and managed by the National Trust....
, Quarley Hill
Quarley Hill
Quarley Hill is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort in Hampshire, southern England. The hill affords commanding views of the surrounding countryside. Oval in plan, the fort is in good condition with counter-scarp and well defined entrances at north-east and south-west. It is built on the...
, and Bury Hill were probably established around the same time as Danebury. All of a similar size, the hillforts were generally equally spaced, commanding similar sized territories and resources. There is some debate whether hill forts were purely defensive structures, and to what extent they were occupied. Cunliffe interprets the ramparts as essentially defensive, although he concedes that they may have been a means of displaying wealth and power, as Danebury would have been visible for miles around. The ramparts were the strongest part of the fort, with the entrances the weakest. The complex gateways support the view that the site was militaristic; the long, curving east entrance maximised the time it would have taken for attackers to enter the fort and would have allowed defenders on the ramparts more time to hurl missiles, while the south-west entrance narrowed forcing attackers together and causing disarray. Iron Age society was, in Cunliffe's view, "effervescent ... essentially unstable, and prone to conflict", and he uses the possible military nature of hill forts to support this view. The burning of the gates was probably the result of an attack, and the charnel pits dating from the end of the intense period of Danebury's occupation contain about 100 bodies, many with injuries that appear to have been inflicted by weapons such as spears and swords.
Surrounding Danebury hill fort are many smaller farmsteads, between 1 ha (2.5 acre) and 2 ha (4.9 acre) in size. The fort was supplied with grain from the surrounding farmsteads, and could hold 20 times more food than the average farmstead, indicating Danebury had a higher status than local farmsteads. This is further supported by the fact that the hill fort was used as a "central place" where people could gather to trade and store commodities. Periods of intensified activity in hill forts such as Danebury coinciding with depopulation of the surrounding landscape could indicate the increasing importance of hill forts in society, or that there were times of unrest when people would retreat to the relative safety of a hill fort's ramparts. While other hill forts were abandoned in the 4th century , in about 400 BC Danebury grew into what is known as a "developed hill fort". Danebury's importance in the landscape increased over time, as demonstrated by its continued use until around 100 AD. It was possibly inhabited by a king or chieftain and his family, retinue, and craftsmen, and may have housed a population of 200–350. There are traces of craft and industry on a large scale, and use of the site by a social elite is indicated by the presence of shrines in the centre of the fort.