By Megan Collier
Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hillfort located in Dorset, England. Although past excavations have unexpectedly revealed the site’s extensive past- from its beginnings as a causewayed enclosure in Neolithic times to the building of a Roman temple at the site (English Heritage, n.d) it is its Iron Age past which has given Maiden Castle its fame and been at the forefront of archaeologists’ investigations there.
Maiden Castle from the air (Wikipedia)
Described as the ‘largest and most complex hillfort in Britain’ (English Heritage, n.d.), Maiden Castle in the Iron Age began as a hillfort with a single rampart. The fort was later extended west, enclosing more than double the area it started with. Throughout the middle Iron Age extra ramparts were added and the inner rampart heightened. During the late Iron Age the hillfort became smaller once again and defences, it seemed, became less important (English Heritage, n.d.). Maiden Castle has been excavated partly by Edward Cunnington (1884), then by Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1934-7), with additional excavations during 1985-6 which built on Wheeler’s finds (Heritage Gateway Record number 1015775).
Cunnington’s partial excavation of the site, in particular the Romano-British buildings, had lead him to believe the whole site was Roman (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, 1970). However, as Wheeler discovered in the 1930s, the site had a much more extensive past, dating back to the Neolithic period. Wheeler examined around 17 sites at Maiden Castle, using mostly single trenches which were divided into excavation squares (Sharples, 1991). During his time, Wheeler’s excavations were well in advance of any others. His use of the grid method, made famous by him (Hunter & Ralston, 2009), recorded the basic stratigraphy of parts of Maiden Castle. Four of Wheeler’s trenches cut through the first rampart of the early Iron Age hillfort, uncovering two entrances allowing access into the hillfort – one on the west and a double entrance on the east. However not much could be uncovered on the early Iron Age occupation of the site, as later Iron Age occupation meant that a lot of evidence of residence within the first fort has sadly been destroyed or masked (Sharples, 1991). Wheeler also uncovered an extensive late Iron Age cemetery containing around 57 burials. At the time he believed it to be evidence of a Roman attack on the hillfort – because of the horrific injures sported by some of the individuals. However, recent interpretations question this, suggesting the individuals who died of violent injures may have just been involved with local skirmishes, due to the fact they were buried carefully and only a few died of violent injures (English Heritage, n.d.). Wheeler also discovered water channels leading into pits at Maiden Castle, along with roads and storage pits (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, 1970) suggesting a large community was established at Maiden Castle during the Iron Age. This is further implied by traces of circular and rectangular huts and buildings which are known from post holes, trenches and floor remains (Heritage Gateway Record number 1015775). However, although Wheeler published his findings in 1943, a large amount of information either didn’t make it to publication, was never recorded or was lost. As well as this issue, Wheeler’s division of trenches into squares- although advanced for his time, by the 1970s/80s made it difficult to follow the stratigraphy across trenches, creating some problems for those wanting to analyse Wheeler’s work (Sharples, 1991).
During the excavations in 1985-6, six trenches were examined on the hillfort – adjacent to Wheeler’s trenches and most involved at least some re-excavation (Sharples, 1991). As such, many findings confirmed what Wheeler already discovered. However the excavations also gave more detail on the site and uncovered new finds, such as in trench six where, as Sharples (1991:48) describes, deposits in the Iron Age occupation revealed ‘evidence for the working of ferrous metals’ providing evidence for industrial activity within the hillfort. As well as this, although Wheeler discovered the early Iron Age bank and ditch, excavations in the 1980s uncovered new sections of the features, which gave more evidence on the building of the defences, suggesting ‘the circuit of the defences was the result of two distinct, and chronologically separate, acts of construction’ (Sharples, 1991:58). As well as the new excavations uncovering more evidence, another reason for why new interpretations arose on aspects of Maiden Castle was because between the 1930s and 1980s archaeology saw major developments (Hunter & Ralston, 2009). Such as the ABC system that was used to understand the chronology of Iron Age Britain throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s and was removed during the 1970s. As such, within two of Wheeler’s trenches, 27 pits contained what Wheeler called ‘Iron Age A’ pottery, however in the excavations during 1985-6 it was discovered to be unlikely that all the pits would belong to the same phase as the understanding of the chronology of the Iron Age had evolved, and so the differences between Iron Age A and Iron Age B were not equivalent to the differences between the new phase 5 and phase 6 (Sharples, 1991).
As well as the excavation, other techniques were used to investigate the site during 1985-6. These included landscape surveys of the surrounding areas to collect data for historical analysis, to examine how significant the occupation of the hillfort was. For example the investigation of the of the river valleys of the south Winterborne and Frome was to examine their potential for exploitation by man – to see if in the past, man would have used the floodplains for things like ploughing, harvesting etc.(Sharples, 1991). These techniques provide evidence that suggest Iron Age hillforts, during their peak, caused many surrounding settlements to be abandoned (Darvill, 2010), possibly because people left to live in the more prosperous hillfort.
Earthworks at Maiden Castle (Wikipedia)
There have been concerns as to the preservation of Maiden Castle, so much so that it was the motivation behind the work carried out at the site during 1985-6. As the population of South Dorset increased, along with the number of visitors to the site, as-well as the burrowing of animals and instability of the ramparts, Sharples (1991) stated that the monument could not survive on its own, and so a management programme was needed. As an English Heritage site, English Heritage continues to protect the Maiden Castle, but with annual visitors and natural erosion the task of preservation proves difficult.
Bibliography
All references to Heritage Gateway can be found on the following website and can be linked to their unique list entry number. http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/.
Darvill, D. (2010) Prehistoric Britain. London: Routledge.
English Heritage (n.d) History of maiden castle. Available online: http://www.englishheritage.org.uk/visit/places/maiden-castle/history/ [Accessed 12/11/15].
Hunter, J. & Ralston, I. (eds) (2009) The archaeology of Britain: an introduction from earliest times to the twenty-first century. London: Routledge.
Sharples, N.M. (1991) Maiden castle: excavations and field survey 1985-6. Swindon: English Heritage.
The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England. (1970) An inventory of the historical monuments in Dorset, volume 2. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery O
Archaeology@Hull 