Abstract
Dn. R. E. MORTIMER WHEELER'S account of his excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorchester, presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London on February 28, and his report in The Times of March 1, make possible a judicial estimate of the importance of this remarkable site in the prehistory of southwestern Britain on more assured evidence than size alone, impressive though this may be. As Dr. Wheeler points out, Maiden Castle stands at the centre of an area noteworthy for the number of its sites of prehistoric occupation. It is clear that its history must be that of a pivotal point in cultural and social development. On the evidence afforded by the first season's exploration, four periods of occupation have been differentiated. Of these the earliest, surprisingly enough, was found to date back to the stone age an occupation by a neolithic people, pastoralists, keeping sheep, pigs and a large breed of ox which had become extinct by historic times. They were pit-dwellers and makers of pottery of the Windmill Hill’ type. This settlement is dated tentatively at 2,000 B.C. Of the later occupations two are pre- and one late-Roman. In the early Iron Age, towards its end, possibly about the fourth century B.C., a site of about fifteen acres was enclosed by ditch, rampart and palisade. The extension of the area to its present size of about a hundred acres, with its complicated series of defences, is perhaps to be attributed to the next period of settlement, but this is not yet clear. It was in this period in the second century B.C. that peoples from Brittany, with their Celtic craftsmanship, spread over the Somerset plain, reaching Glastonbury and Meare. At Maiden Castle, however, Dr. Wheeler has as yet discerned no fundamental change in the character of the population. Towards the close of the period of Roman occupation the site, which for a tune had been left derelict while the neighbouring Roman town of Dorchester was flourishing, was reoccupied and the building took place of the now famous Romano -British temple which Dr. Wheeler has rediscovered.
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Maiden Castle, Dorchester. Nature 135, 368 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135368c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135368c0