Hill-fort

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

A Hill-Fort is a fortified enclosure within a large ditch and bank structure, used not only for military purposes but also as settlements and animal pens. They were built upon high ground, sometimes on the sites of Neolithic flint mines, so enabling the inhabitants to keep watch for invaders, and to give tactical advantage. The fortification normally follows the natural contours of the hill, and often consists of one or more lines of earthworks, combined with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches.

Some were built in the Bronze Age, but most British hill-forts were constructed in the Iron Age, between 200 BC and the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD, at which time some were taken over by the Romans and used to defend against the Saxons. Some hill-forts were reoccupied by the Anglo-Saxons during the Viking raids.