Early Cultures Monuments And Hill Forts

To provide a basic introduction to the development of Monuments and Hill Forts, it is helpful to have some idea of what happened to the population development prior to the appearance of the first Monuments and later hill forts.

The first era is The Palaeolithic various estimates indicated this era started sometime between 2.5 million years ago and closing around 8,500 years ago. As this is such a vast period of time scholars have divided the period into 3 eras.

Lower Palaeolithic. Estimates for the start of this age vary from 2.6 to 2.5 million to 120,000 years ago. During this era several tool using humanoid species appeared, the most dominant towards the end of this period was the Neanderthal.

Middle Palaeolithic from around 120,000 to 35,000 years ago. The era started with several hominid species however Neanderthal man became the dominant humanoid culture at this time. Homo sapiens only appearing toward the end of this era bring with them the slow decline of the Neanderthal's.

And finally the Upper Palaeolithic this started sometime about 35,000 to lasted until sometime between 10,000 and 8,500 years ago. Homo sapiens are now the only humanoid species. One sobering thought to ponder. To reach the time Neanderthal man was dominant on this earth we have to exist another 2.4 million years.

Palaeolithic or Early Stone Age around 2.5 to 2.6 million ago to 10,000BC¹ inhabitants of Europe were hunter gatherers living in small possibly extended family groups. They migrated with the game they relied on for food, traveling to regular seasonal hunting grounds. The first examples of stone and flint tools appeared. There are burials appearing this suggests the start of basic religious/spiritual beliefs and ceremonial acts.

Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age 10,000BC to 7,000BC². At this time people existed in small semi nomadic groups, with a territory that they traveled visiting camps on a seasonal basis, following the animals they relied in for food. It is possible that as time went on these small isolated groups of hunter gathers coalesced into larger groups and it was at this time farming made an appearance. It was during the Mesolithic period that Britain becomes separated from Europe.

Neolithic or New Stone Age 7,000BC to 3,000BC³. As farming technology spread up from the south the groups of hunters probably merged into tribes, this enabled food production to increase and a create a reliable supply of food with some surplus food. This forced the development of settlements as farmers are tied to the land they farm. The natural leaders of the former hunter gather groups likely became the tribal leaders when the groups settled and became tribes.
Communal living in settlements had arrived and cooperative food production was developed.

Bronze Age 3,000BC to 1,300BC⁴ This method of food production was reliable and with hunting provided a year round supply. With farming came the domestication of livestock cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. A by-product of this development was of the surplus food this produced a growth of a healthier settled population. All this progress gave the population of Europe time to develop other things other than spending the majority time gathering food. Powerful local leaders were there to direct their efforts. Also a learned class probably maid up of priests enabled the planning and design monuments.

The Age Of Hill Forts

Iron Age 1,300BC to 43AD⁵ This in turn provided the freedom to develop a social structure. It is apparent that there were local headmen, chiefs and later holy men, had probably been around in one form or another for several millennium. It was It this time local dynasties started to develop. A leadership class came into being, along with a mutual supporting priestly class.

Hill Forts Appear

What lead to the development of hill forts in the Neolithic and Bronze age is uncertain. There is little evidence of other defended settlements, there is evidence of undefended settlements of over 2,000 people. They started to appear in greater numbers at the start of the Iron Age. This this seems to coincide with some sort of social change, perhaps caused by a rise in the population. The Romans list many tribes in Britain who appeared during Iron Age and there is some evidence of their warlike behavior. Hill Forts are to be found all over Britain, not only England but Scotland⁶and Wales.

The population of any hill fort was small and judging by the archeological surveys the average number living in a Hill Fort was between 20 to 400 people, and this indicates that entire population did not move to the hill tops. There are 30 known hill forts Hampshire and they would have supported less than 5,000 inhabitants And the total in Britain there are over 3,000 in total ⁷. The size of hill forts varies from the small at 1 acre, to the largest at 200 acres. It appears the bulk of the population lived in settlements outside these forts. The bulk of the population were farmers and would have lived on the land in scattered settlements.

So why build them at all? The most likely reason was probably the need for protection, and there is every reason that this would have been a concern. The inhabitants in the area of the hill fort could take shelter in the fort at the first sign of trouble. However the impressive scale of construction was such that there was a distinct deterrent effect intended. If added to this would be a definite intent to impress any important visitor with the tribes power and the status of the chief.

Defended Enclosures

When is a hill fort is not a hill fort, when it is not on a hill.It then tends to be referred to as a Defended Enclosure or an Enclosed Place.

This leads to Classification of Hill Forts or Defended Enclosure by location, to help you in identification these are the main inland types.

The Hill Fort - Location – On an inland hilltop or ridge, it must have steep slopes on at least 2 sides. And must be enclosed by a circuit of at least 1 rampart and 1 ditch.

The following are the other variations of hill fort design.
An Inland Promontory Fort - The location is similar to that of a Hill Fort. An inland hill top or ridge with steep slopes on at least 2 sides. In this case it must defended by a linear ditch and bank from attack from the level ground.

An Inter-fluvial Fort - The location as a Hill Fort an inland hill. With a river, or rivers providing protection on 3 sides. As in a river fork or bend.

A Lowland Fort - An inland fort on low lying flat ground,that had been enclosed by a circuit of at least 1 rampart and 1 ditch. Other defenses could include a river or flood plain.

Hampshire Hill Forts

A list of Hampshire hill forts in alphabetic order.

1. Ashleys Copse Hill Fort. -- (51.112825,-1.63045)
2. Balksbury Hill Fort. -- (51.18857,-1.500342)
3. Beacon Hill, Burghclere. -- (50.980446,-1.0858024)
4. Bevisbury Hill Fort. -- (51.285111,-1.533938)
5. Buckland Rings Hill Fort. -- (50.77022,-1.55525)
6. Bullsdown Camp Hill Fort. -- (50.77022,-1.03868)
7. Bury Hill, Hill Fort. -- (51.306389,-2.301707)
8. Caesar's Camp Hill Fort. -- (51.243974,-0.805141)
9. Castle Hill. Hill Fort. -- (50.834768,-1.719146)
10. Chilworth Ring Hill Fort. -- (50.77022,-1.55525)
11. Danebury Hill Fort. -- (51.136681,-1.537569)
12. Dunwood Camp Hill Fort. -- (51.005540,-1.555271)
13. Frankenbury Camp Hill Fort. -- (50.9363,-1.7633)
14. Gorley Hill, Hill Fort. -- (50.9027,-1.7649)
15. Hamble Common Camp Hill Fort. -- (50.8515,-1.3172)
16. Knoll Camp Hill Fort. -- (50.9660,-1.8599)
17. Lockerley Camp Hill Fort. -- (51.0317,-1.5675)
18. Merdon Castle Hill Fort. -- (51.035425,-1.400958)
19. Norsebury Ring Hill Fort. -- (51.158053,-1.299275)
20. Old Winchester Hill. -- (51.050486,-1.306021)
21. Olivers Battery Fort Hill fort. -- (51.04621,-1.310742)
22. Oram's Arbour Hill Fort. -- (51.35287,-1.191926
23. Quarley Hill Hill Fort. -- (51.1796,-1.6260)
24. Tidbury Ring Hill Fort. -- (51.1835,-1.3393)
25. The Frith Hill Fort. -- (51.363337,-1.101091)
26. Toothill Fort Hill Fort. -- (50.9660,-1.4579)
27. Tourner Bury Hill Fort. -- (50.793673,-0.962557)
28. Whitsbury Castle Hill Fort. -- (50.9697,-1.8191)
29. Winklebury Hill Fort. -- (50.9697,-1.8191)
30. Woolbury Hill Fort. -- (51.1157,-1.4571)

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