Maes Knoll
Hill fort | |
History | |
---|---|
Periods | Iron Age |
Site notes | |
Condition | some damage |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Maes_Knoll_Somerset_Map.jpg/220px-Maes_Knoll_Somerset_Map.jpg)
Maes Knoll (sometimes Maes tump or Maes Knoll tump) is an
Background
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Maes_Knoll_Digital_Terrain_Model.jpg/220px-Maes_Knoll_Digital_Terrain_Model.jpg)
Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC.[2] The reason for their emergence in Britain, and their purpose, has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture. The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits of iron ore were distant from the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze, so that trading patterns shifted and the old elites lost their economic and social status. Power passed into the hands of a new group of people.[3] Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believes that population increase still played a role and has stated "[the forts] provided defensive possibilities for the community at those times when the stress [of an increasing population] burst out into open warfare. But I wouldn't see them as having been built because there was a state of war. They would be functional as defensive strongholds when there were tensions and undoubtedly some of them were attacked and destroyed, but this was not the only, or even the most significant, factor in their construction".[4]
Description
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Maes_Knoll_2.jpg/220px-Maes_Knoll_2.jpg)
The hill fort, which is approximately 390 by 84 feet (119 m × 26 m), and 45 feet (14 m) in height, covering 20 acres (8.1 ha), consists of a fairly large flat open area, roughly triangular in shape, that has been fortified by
Early history
It is believed to have been built, around 250 BC, by the
The pre-historic, later
Second World War
During the
The flat plateau immediately to the east of Maes Knoll had some 50 wartime stone cairns to deter enemy glider landings. The cairns continued to be there for some years after the war ended.
See also
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
References
- ^ "Maes Knoll". National Monuments Record. English Heritage. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-873592-85-4
- ISBN 0-7134-6083-0
- ^ Time Team: Swords, skulls and strongholds, Channel 4, 19 May 2008, retrieved 16 September 2009
- ^ a b "Area 5 – The Dundry Plateau" (PDF). Landscape Character. Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
- ^ a b "Maes Knoll Iron Age camp". Wansdyke Project 21. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ "Maes Knoll". Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- "Maes Knoll". Megalithic Portal.
External links
- Illustrated description
- Map sources for Maes Knoll