Maiden Castle by Niall M. Sharples

Britain's largest hillfort

Maiden Castle is Britain's largest hill fort. Based partly on the authors own excavations, this book provides a survey of this monument placing it in the context of the surrounding area and relating it to significant regional and national developments from the same period. "Maiden Castle" is written by Niall Sharples who is an archaeologist and was Director of the Maiden Castle project.

Construction of Maiden Castle

It is thought that the construction of Maiden Castle began around 3000 BC and flint tools and other object dating from that time have been found. The late Stone Age/ early Bronze Age people who lived there built a massive ditch and bank some 545 metres in length. There are Bronze Age burial mounds on the right hand end of the Castle.

Romans

Centuries after its construction the fort was probably occupied by the Durotriges, a Celtic tribe at the time of the Roman invasion. The site may have been attacked and invested by the 2nd Legion under Vespasian in AD 43. Mortimer Wheeler created a vivid account of the fall of the hill fort Maiden Castle in his report following the excavations of 1934-1937. Later examination of his records by Niall Sharples has largely discounted this interpretation and it is no longer thought that the fort was besieged or violently taken by the Romans.

Celtic temple

One final development in the hillfort Maiden Castle was the building of a small Romano-Celtic temple 12m (40ft) square, in the late fourth century AD. Its foundations are still visible in the north-east sector of the fort. Human remains suggesting a macabre ritual murder were found at the east end of this mound: a man about thirty years old and 5ft 4in in height had been hacked to death and dismembered before being buried in the mound. This murder has been dated to about AD 635, in Saxon times.

By Niall M. Sharples

Publisher: B.T. Batsford, 1991
ISBN: 0713460792

More information

Castles Main Page
Castles : Their Construction and History