Celtic Fortifications

by Ian Ralston

From northern Scotland to southern Iberia the enclosures around hill- and promontory-forts are the most conspicuous component of the Iron Age archaeological record. Ian Ralston looks at their construction and reconstruction and at the architecture of banks, walls, ramparts and ditches, gateways, and ancillary features. He examines the placing of these fortifications in the landscape and their effectiveness as hill-fort defences in war. He also considers these enclosures as signs and symbols.

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Ian B.M. Ralston is Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology and Head of the Archaeology School at the University of Edinburgh, and currently chair of CFA Archaeology. Over his career he has worked on many aspects of Scottish Archaeology before the Vikings, as well as on the later prehistory of western continental Europe. He is the co-author of The Archaeology of Britain: An Introduction from Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century (2009).