Maiden Castle
Maiden Castle near Dorchester in Dorset is the largest Iron Age hillfort in Britain and one of the most impressive prehistoric monuments in Europe. Its vast earthwork system covers nearly 50 hectares of a natural chalk ridge, and the scale of the multiple ramparts and deep ditches that surround the inner plateau becomes fully apparent only when you walk the circuit of the defences, a journey of nearly a mile just to circumnavigate the outer bank. The site's history of human occupation stretches back far beyond the Iron Age fort. Neolithic people built a causewayed enclosure and a long barrow here as early as 3500 BC, and archaeological evidence shows continuing activity across several thousand years before the great Iron Age fortification was constructed from around 600 BC onwards. The hilltop's commanding position over the surrounding chalk countryside made it a natural focal point for the communities of the Dorset downland across many generations. The development of the hillfort itself was a lengthy process. The original Iron Age enclosure was relatively modest, but a massive expansion in the third century BC extended the defences to their full extent and added the elaborate inturned entrances at the eastern and western ends. These entrances are the most complex and impressive features of the site, their multiple overlapping banks and ditches creating a labyrinthine approach that would have channelled and slowed any attacking force while defenders rained missiles from the ramparts above. The sheer quantity of sling stones found by archaeologists at Maiden Castle indicates that the defended community was prepared to resist attack with considerable force. Evidence of the Roman assault on Maiden Castle was discovered by Mortimer Wheeler during excavations in the 1930s. A war cemetery containing bodies showing spear and sword wounds, with Roman ballista bolts still embedded in the bone, provided dramatic evidence of the conflict that accompanied the Roman conquest of Britain around AD 43 to 44. The site was subsequently abandoned as a settlement as the local population moved to the newly established Roman town of Durnovaria, modern Dorchester. The site is managed by English Heritage and is freely accessible at all reasonable times. The best views of the full extent of the earthworks are obtained either from the air or by walking around the complete perimeter circuit, which reveals the monumentality of the construction in a way that no static viewpoint can capture.