| Abstract: |
Bredon Hill is seen as a Middle Iron Age territory of approximately 24 km2, containing three hillforts of which Conderton Camp is the smallest and probably the first constructed, between the late-sixth and early-fourth century cal BC. The community responsible for it was associated through its material culture with Bredon Hill Camp to the northwest and with hillfort communities over a much wider area, and also with open settlements around Bredon Hill's southern margins and across the Cotswolds. A series of twenty-four radiocarbon age determinations sets this hillfort and culture in a secure but narrow time frame. A resistivity survey has shown that the spur upon which the hillfort was built had already been under cultivation, which extended across the valley. The Camp enclosed about 1.95 ha, with an initial rampart, ditch and counterscarp bank interrupted by simple entrances at the north and south. Part of the rampart around the southern end was later pulled back and laid across the spur to form a smaller upper camp with a central, inturned entrance and adjacent freestanding guardhouse. The north entrance was rebuilt to a similar design around the same time. Occupation of the upper camp included construction of around ten circular houses, not all contemporary, in two distinct sizes, defined by drystone-faced foundation walls. Storage was in more than 140 rock-cut pits among and beneath the houses, several lined with wickerwork, and others faced or patched with drystone. In the southwest corner of the upper camp stood a four-post structure which may have been a watch tower, another being set up within the abandoned guardhouse at the central entrance. A characteristic assemblage of Middle Iron Age impressed and linear-incised pottery was recovered, including salt containers from Droitwich and Cheshire. Possibly towards the end of the hillfort's use, the north entrance was blocked by a drystone wall; the camp was abandoned before the Late Iron Age, possibly in the early- to mid-second century BC. Apart from sporadic Romano-British activity, the site has remained under grass since that time. Excavations took place in 1958 and 1959, when the hillfort was known as Danes Camp, and this name has been incorporated in the archive, although the author argues that Conderton Camp is the most appropriate name. Includes French and German summaries; separately authored reports include |
