Maiden Castle, Dorset

Abstract

The saddleback hill now encircled by the earthworks ef Maiden Castle was first occupied by a Neolithic A population in the latter haij ef the third millenium B.C. The settlement, on the eastern end ef the hill, was surrounded by two parallel lines ef interrupted ditch and covered an area ef about a dozen acres. After a time this village was deserted, but shortly before the arrival ef the Neolithic B culture the site was straddled by a long barrow ef unique immensity, I ,790 ft. in length. In the eastern end ef the barrow was a remarkable burial, that ef a man whose body had been extensively mutilated after death. Vestiges ef subsequent occupation extend into the Early Bronze Age, whereafter the hilltop was abandoned until a mature phase ef Early Iron Age A, approximately the end ef the fourth century B.C. On the site ef the neolithic village the Early Iron Age A folk built a single line ef fortification, with timber-revetted rampart ef 'wall-and-berm' type, enclosing I 5 acres. Of the two entrances, the eastern was double, and overlooked a metalled place or market-place on the flat slope beyond. Wooden cattle-pens were set up in this metalled area. Subsequently, the main enclosure was extended to the western slope ef the hill, with a total internal area ef 45 acres. At the western end ef the new work a double entrance was built, on the model ef the original eastern entrance. Then or shortly afterwards a hornwork, revetted with timber and stone, was built outside both eastern and western entrances. The earthwork remained in the occupation ef a considerable if squalid urban peasantry until the middle ef the first century B.c., when it passed suddenly under the control ef a new culture, here named' Wessex Early Iron Age B'. Outer lines ef rampart and ditch were now added and the main rampart was doubled in height, the conditioning factor being the extensive use ef the sling by the new-comers. This and other evidence point to southern Brittany (the home ef the Veneti) as a principal source, and suggest as a causative circumstance the recorded clearance ef that region by Julius Caesar in 56 B.C. Later, approximately at the end ef the first century B.c., the multiple earthworks were enlarged to form the huge defensive system now visible. Later again, about A.D. 25, the 'Castle' was mastered by Belgic elements from south-eastern Britain. The main rampart was slightly modified, and new cultural elements, including coinage, were introduced. In or shortly after A.D. 43 the Roman army ef conquest, here led by the future emperor Vespasian, stormed the fortifications, and a Belgic war cemetery within the outworks ef the eastern entrance is a vivid memorial ef the event. After the act ef conquest, the population were suffered to remain in occupation ef their 'slighted' stronghold for a quarter ef a century, during which, in southern Britain, a Roman economy gradually superseded the native, and Roman towns came into being. About A.D. 70 the change was sufficiently advanced for the final transference ef the townsfolk to a romanized environment, doubtless to Roman Dorchester, which appears to have been founded at this time. The site of Maiden Castle lapsed thereafter into pasture or tillage until, about A.D. 370, its eastern (and older) part was converted into a temple-precinct. A Romano-Celtic temple, with an adjacent lodgingfor the priest, was built upon the hill-top, and a stone portal inserted into the old eastern entrance. Sometime in the fifth-century this last episode came to an end, and, save for an isolated Saxon burial of about A.D. 600, subsequent usage has been limited to the depredations of the farmer, the stone-robber, and the excavator.