It's #HillfortsWednesday and here’s the curiously enigmatic (and infrequently examined) prehistoric earthwork enclosures atop the wonderfully named Thundersbarrow Hill #WestSussex@sdnpa 😍
Thundersbarrow Early Iron Age hillfort sits brooding atop a low ridge at the southern slope of the chalk downs @sdnpa above the Sussex coastal plain and Shoreham-by-Sea
The landscape context of Thundersbarrow hillfort and its relationship to prehistoric, Romano British and later fieldsystems is evident in these contour and relief LiDAR maps looking SE generated by @planlaufterrain@HenryRothwell
The archaeology of Thundersbarrow Hill (a BA barrow, LBA enclosure, EIA hillfort and a RB village with field systems) was recorded in meticulous detail from 1916-32 by Robert Gurd, William Jacobs, Herbert Toms and EC Curwen, prior to plough damage 🤩
The hillfort of Thundersbarrow has been levelled by ploughing at the E, but survives as a low earthwork along the W as evident in this aerial pic looking NE
The inner Bronze Age enclosure appears as a crop mark
The western edge of Thundersbarrow hillfort #WestSussex, despite agricultural attrition, can just be made out today, the rampart surviving to just under 1m in height above a shallow 6m wide ditch
Excavations at Thundersbarrow by Elliot Cecil Curwen in 1932 sampled the Iron Age hillfort, Bronze Age enclosure and Romano British grain-drying / malting ovens identified through ground percussion
In August 1985, excavations at Thundersbarrow hillfort #WestSussex were conducted by David Rudling on behalf of the Sussex Archaeological Field Unit @UCLarchaeology
The 1985 excavation by David Rudling #SAFU@ArchSouthEast@UCLarchaeology across the inner enclosure at Thundersbarrow Hill confirmed this earlier phase dated to the Later Bronze Age (10th / 9th century BC)
Excavation by #SAFU (now @ArchSouthEast@UCLarchaeology) across the bank and outer ditch of Thundersbarrow Hill #WestSussex in 1985 recovered finds that suggesting the hillfort was constructed in the 6th c BC and went out of use in the mid-3rd c BC
The enigmatic Dwarfie Stane on the island of #Hoy, part of the #Orkney archipelago
Looked after by @welovehistory @HistEnvScot it's quite possibly Britain's only #Neolithic rock cut tomb
A peedie thread for #TombTuesday
📷 Aug 2024 👇👇
The Dwarfie Stane #Hoy is a chonky slab of red sandstone (measuring 2m high and 8m long) into which a 2 chambers linked by a short entrance passage have been carved
Plan: J Callander *Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland* 70 (1936)
#TombTuesday
Today, the Dwarfie Stane #Hoy can be freely accessed, a large blocking stone, which seems to have originally sealed the entrance, lies nearby
It's impressive today, but how did it look in prehistory?
A thread on our favourite recreations / reconstructions from books, guides and on-site signage 👇👇
Arguably the most famous hillfort in Britain, the multivallate Maiden Castle #Dorset encloses over 17ha and comprises many phases of construction and modification the appearance of which can be difficult to convey
It’s #HillfortsWednesday and we wonder if the Iron Age univallate Trundle has ever looked more gorgeous than in this incredible pic by @DavidRAbram here, looking N towards the mist swathed #WestSussex Weald 🤩
The Iron Age ramparts of the Trundle #WestSussex partially enclose the spiral circuit of an earlier causewayed enclosure, the remains of which can be seen in this epic photo by @DavidRAbram
The distinctive imprint of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure is evident within the polygonal circuit of the Iron Age Trundle #WestSussex as slight earthworks and as dark lines to the SW in this early air photo from the 1930s in @SAS_Library@sussex_society
Figsbury Ring comprises a fine set of prehistoric enclosure systems on the chalk above Salisbury in #Wiltshire looked after by @nationaltrust@NatTrustArch
For many years, Figsbury Ring, depicted here in the Ordnance Survey for 1927 with the Roman road from Old Sarum to Winchester to the south, was thought to be a bivallate Iron Age hillfort...
...but there was something strange about the innermost circuit
Double ramparts define the 22ha hillfort of Hod Hill #Dorset except on the W with a single bank. Quarry pits form a line behind the ramparts. A Roman fort occupies the NW
The 2.6ha Roman fort at Hod Hill dates to c AD 44-52. It reused the N and W ramparts of the hillfort and was defended on its S and E sides by a rampart and 3 ditches
Excavations in 1951-8 revealed much of the internal structure