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Danebury, Hampshire: First Interim Report on the Excavation, 1969–70

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Barry Cunliffe
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Summary

The Iron Age hill-fort at Danebury has been subjected to two seasons of excavation concentrating on the defences and the east entrance. The main defences show three phases of construction: (a) a timber-faced rampart of the 4th century B.C. (b) remodelling to a glacis-style rampart in 3rd to 2nd centuries, (c) the re-digging of the ditch in a fiat-bottomed form possibly just before the Roman Conquest. The east gate underwent seven major periods of rebuilding, each showing sub-phases. A development from a simple gate to one defended by massive outworks has been demonstrated.

The ‘middle earthwork’ on the south side of the fort, and the ‘outer earthwork’ which surrounds it are dated to the 3rd to 2nd century and the 1st century respectively. They were probably stock enclosures. The sample excavation of the interior of the fort showed that occupation was dense. Among the cultural material discovered was a hoard of currency bars.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , September 1971 , pp. 240 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1971

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References

page 240 note 1 The Stukeley notebook is preserved in the Library of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society at Devizes.

page 240 note 2 The coin and bone comb are in the British Museum, the iron objects in the Winchester City Museum. Some of the early discoveries are referred to in the Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond. IV (1858),241–2.Google Scholar

page 240 note 3 For the original account see Proc. Hants. Field Club, VI (1910), 293–308.Google Scholar A later account, using the same illustrations appeared in Williams-Freeman, J. P., Field Archaeology as illustrated by Hampshire (1915), 147–59, 370.Google Scholar Further details were added in Crawford, O. G. S. and Keiller, A., Wessex from the Air (1928), 88–92.Google Scholar

page 243 note 1 This pottery, characterized by haematite coated bowls with applied cordons, scratched decorations, and foot-ring bases, was found in quantity at the neighbouring site of Hill, Meon; Proc. Hants. Field Club, XII (1933), 127–62, xiii (1934), 7–54.Google Scholar

page 246 note 1 Antiq. Journ. XII (1932), 1–16.Google Scholar

page 248 note 1 Proc. Hants. Field Club, xi (1929), fig. 5.

page 248 note 2 All trace of the supposed middle timber has been removed by subsequent work.