Danebury

by Barry Cunliffe

In 1969, Professor Barry Cunliffe embarked on the most ambitious excavation of an Iron Age hillfort ever undertaken. The fourteen year's work on Danebury Ring in Hampshire not only provides an insight into the methods of modern archaeology; it also offers a comprehensive picture of Iron Age society and economy in Western Europe. Against the background of other British hillforts, the author reveals the main phases in Danebury's rise and fall that have been uncovered by the excavation programme. Although major changes inevitably took place between the first fortifications around 550BC and the camp's destruction in about 100BC, nevertheless a picture of considerable stability emerges. Professor Cunliffe looks at different aspects of the life led by the 200-350 Celts living in Danebury - their love of war; their buildings; their agriculture and crafts; their rituals relating to life and death. He also traces Danebury's fate during the Roman invasions and subsequently in the medieval and later periods. The author has also written "Iron Age Communities in Britain".

Contents:
Hillforts - progress towards an understanding
The Danebury project takes shape;
Man and landscape in Wessex;
The fort builders - the sequence established;
Defence and warfare;
The settlement - its people and their houses;
Daily bread - the farming regime;
Crafts, exchange and luxury;
The social order;
The end of Danebury;
Aftermath - fairs and rabbits.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published November 24, 1983

About the author

Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe taught archaeology in the Universities of Bristol and Southampton and was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2008, thereafter becoming Emeritus Professor. He has excavated widely in Britain (Fishbourne, Bath, Danebury, Hengistbury Head, Brading) and in the Channel Islands, Brittany, and Spain, and has been President of the Council for British Archaeology and of the Society of Antiquaries, Governor of the Museum of London, and a Trustee of the British Museum. He is currently a Commissioner of English Heritage.