Hillforts are spectacular monuments of the Iron Age in visually impressive landscape settings. Visiting these sites today evokes the age-old questions of who built them and why? This course will try to answer these and other questions through discussion based on visiting hillforts and looking at the evidence they provide through excavation and other means.
We will visit sites in the Oxfordshire area which have been chosen because they provide evidence upon which we can base discussion. Using published materials we will assess whether the evidence suggests that hillforts were used as defensive places, meeting places, or a combination of the two. Were they permanently occupied or just occasionally used? Why were they constructed in these locations?
The course will be mainly field trip-based, with three full-day trips, and will also include two classroom sessions.
The first field trip will be a visit to Danebury in Hampshire and to the Museum of the Iron Age in Andover. The following two will be a detailed look at hillforts on the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire Ridgeway, to discuss the results of recent excavations and look at their landscape setting. These will be Cherbury Camp, Segsbury Camp, Uffington Castle, Alfred's Castle, Liddington Castle and Barbury Camp.
Please note: the visits will involve some walking and in some cases over moderately rough terrain.