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Overview of Chilterns Hillforts
• The chronological framework for later prehistory
• Land allotment and the landscape setting of hillforts
• Hillforts as part of a distinctive archaeological signature for the Iron Age of the Chilterns?
1600-1150 BC Middle Bronze Age Ending of the major phase of ritual and burial monuments; beginning of land allotment and widespread permanent settlement
1150-800 BC Late Bronze Age Changes in settlement; pottery and metalwork; diversity of settlement types and developing settlement hierarchy; evidence of inter-regional and international exchange
800-600 BC Earliest Iron Age Collapse of bronze manufacturing and trading networks; major phase of settlement abandonment and re-location
600-300 BC Early Iron Age Intensification of settlement and agriculture; development of distinctive regional cultures/identities
300-100BC Middle Iron Age
100BC-AD50/80 Late Iron Age Re-establishment of significant international contacts with new cultures; explosion in settlement and ritual/burial evidence in Thames valley and SE England; Chilterns appears to retain some separate identity
Chronology: the implications of Needham’s ‘great divide’ of 800BC and improved precision for
radiocarbon dating of the Iron Age
Barrett pots: plainware 1000-800BC
Barrett pots: decorated 800-600BC
The end of the Bronze Age – hoarding/dumping of bronze
The Watford Hoard
The Langton Matravers Hoard, Dorset
303 new axes, high tin content, polished, too brittle to use
The Problem:
• lack of radiocarbon dating
• circularity of dating from pottery
• differing use of period terminology
Leads to:
• imprecise dating for most settlements
• difficulty of identifying periods of abandonment
• poor understanding of the dynamics of settlement
A terminology based on Needham 2007
• 1150-800 Late Bronze Age • 800-600 Earliest Iron Age• 850-750BC Late Bronze Age/Earliest Iron Age • 1200-600BC Late Bronze Age-Earliest Iron Age • 1200-300BC Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age
North Hertfordshire: landscape and chronology
Late Bronze Age (1200-800)
Large, apparently empty enclosure; pits, cremation burials
Earliest Iron Age (800-500/400)
Hiatus/abandonment
Early Iron Age (5/400-300)
Enclosed hamlet-sized settlement
Middle Iron Age (300-100)
Reduced activity
Fairfield Park 2001-2
Fairfield Park radiocarbon dates
Excavations west of Wilbury Hill, Letchworth 2012
Prehistoric pasture landscapes
Ashridge
Gt. Gaddesden & the Boxted to Friar’s Wash Pipeline 2006
The Chilterns Iron Age signature?
Hillforts, Dykes and LBA ringworks
Mucking North Rings
Late Bronze Age ringwork, Gt. Westwood Quarry 2001
Whitely Hill, Royston
Late Bronze Age Ringworks