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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