Caerau Hillfort: A Complicated History of Defenses and Settlements in Cardiff, Lecture notes of United Kingdom History

Download Caerau Hillfort: A Complicated History of Defenses and Settlements in Cardiff and more Lecture notes United Kingdom History in PDF only on Docsity! Great Archaeological Sites in Cardiff 2. CAERAU HILLFORT AND RINGWORK The summit of a steep hill on the southwestern edge of Cardiff is crowned by the banks and ditches that enclose a flat, roughly triangular area (ST13357500). This is Caerau hillfort, defended not only by the steepness of the natural slopes, but also by massive ramparts still well over 2m high, three of them on the west and north. On the eastern side were the ground outside is more level, there are two ramparts on the northern half. In the middle of this side the ramparts turn inwards to create an entrance, and to the south of it where here is a single massive rampart which runs just beyond the southern corner where there is another entrance. Hillforts are typical of the Iron Age, although many continued in use in the Roman period and even later. But we now know that the story of Caerau is more complicated than that, thanks to the excavations carried out by Cardiff University with local volunteers https://caerheritageproject.com/. The story begins thousands of years before the Iron Age, in the Early Neolithic. An enclosure occupied part of the area of hilltop that was later to be used for the fort. However, it was not defensive, as there were gaps in the surrounding ditches, which had been dug at intervals over a long period of time. The only finds from them were Neolithic pottery and flints. No evidence has been found so far to show what this particular enclosure was for; although many archaeologists think that similar Neolithic enclosures from elsewhere in Britain may have been connected with mass gatherings.