Life & people

Farmers, weavers, traders and slingers

Who lived in hillforts, how they made a living, and what they left behind.

Homes

Roundhouses had high, straw-thatched roofs, and many had a central hearth for cooking, warmth and light. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle At Old Oswestry each roundhouse had wooden posts and wattle-and-daub walls, with a hearth inside. English Heritage: History of Old Oswestry Hillfort

At Maiden Castle roundhouses stood in rows, facing tracks wide enough for carts. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

Not every round building was a home: some were workshops for making cloth and metalwork. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

Around Maiden Castle people grew wheat, barley, peas and beans, and plants of the cabbage family. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

Danebury was mainly a farming community: people kept sheep and cattle, wove woollen cloth and made leather goods. Hampshire County Council: Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort Local Nature Reserve

People kept dogs for herding cattle, guarding sheep from wolves, hunting and guarding homes. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

Square sets of four postholes, called “four-posters”, have been read as raised granaries, keeping grain dry and away from vermin. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle Danebury’s storage pits were dug into the chalk with tools such as mattocks, with a narrow neck and a wider base, then filled with grain and sealed. Hampshire County Council: Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort Local Nature Reserve

Pots were hand-made from local clay, without a potter’s wheel. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

Clothing was woollen, and many everyday things were made of bone, leather, horn and wood. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

Iron and bronze tools are rarely found at hillforts, because these valuable metals were usually recycled. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

A pottery crucible in one hearth at Old Oswestry shows people were melting bronze there. English Heritage: History of Old Oswestry Hillfort

Danebury had few natural resources, so it traded for iron, tin, copper, salt, shale and stone. Hampshire County Council: Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort Local Nature Reserve

Pottery from the Wiltshire area and salt containers from Cheshire reached Old Oswestry: proof of long-distance trade. English Heritage: History of Old Oswestry Hillfort

No wells are known inside any hillfort, so people perhaps collected rainwater from their roofs in troughs or leather bags. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

A community of 300 to 400 people lived at Danebury for more than 400 years. Hampshire County Council: Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort Local Nature Reserve At its height Maiden Castle was the main Iron Age settlement in south Dorset, with over 100 roundhouses. English Heritage: History of Maiden Castle

Men, women and children may all have had to fight off raiders by hurling sling stones. Hampshire County Council: Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort Local Nature Reserve

People at Danebury believed gods lived in rivers, trees and other natural features. Hampshire County Council: Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort Local Nature Reserve