Battlesbury Camp

Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC. The reason for their emergence in Britain, and their purpose, has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture. The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits of iron ore were located in different places to the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze, and as a result trading…

Battlesbury occupies the summit of an irregular point of down, with its defences following the natural contours of the hill; by nature of the site it is almost inaccessible on the west and northeast sides. It has triple ditches and ramparts for the most part, doubled on the southeast side. The site encloses 23.5 acres in all. There are entrances at the northeast and northwest corners. Pits found within the fortifications contained late Iron Age pottery, the hub of a chariot wheel, an iron carpenter's saw, a latch-lifter for a hut door, querns, whetstones, sling stones, and animal bones. These all indicate a permanent occupation and date from the 1st century BC. A group of graves containing…