Hill Forts in Hampshire - Danebury, St. Catherine's Hill, Hampshire, Beacon Hill, Burghclere, Hampshire, Old Winchester Hill, Oram's Arbour (Paperback)

Chapters: Danebury, St. Catherine's Hill, Hampshire, Beacon Hill, Burghclere, Hampshire, Old Winchester Hill, Oram's Arbour. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Danebury - The interior of Danebury with the ditch on the rightUntil the 19th century very little was known about hill forts, as none had been excavated and their original purpose had been long forgotten. In the medieval period, their construction was attributed variously to iconic figures such as King Arthur, King Alfred, the Danes, Julius Caesar, and even giants. By the 18th century, it was widely thought that hill forts were Roman in origin. Interest in hill forts was roused by the investigation of a hill fort at Worlebury Hill in the early-19th century. The first excavation at Danebury was carried out in November 1859, under antiquarian Augustus Wollaston Franks. His workers cleared out an Iron Age pit that was 2 metres (7 ft) deep and 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter, however they did not know the purpose of the pit. The first widespread investigation of hill forts was carried out in the second half of the 19th century under Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Pitt-River's work on the hill forts of Sussex led him to the conclusion that most hill forts were built in the Iron Age, and it paved the way for future work on hill forts. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was "hill fort mania" in British archaeology; by 1940, about 80 had been archaeologically excavated. In the late 1960s, Barry Cunliffe decided to examine a single hill fort and its surrounding territory in an attempt to shed light on Iron Age society, its politics, and population. With the permission of the site's owner, Hampshire County Council, archaeological excavations began in 1969 and continued until 1988. Over the twenty seasons archaeologists ...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=652455