Monumentality in Later Prehistory [recurso electrónico] Building and Rebuilding Castell Henllys Hillfort

This volume provides the results of a 30-year excavation, reconstruction, and public interpretation campaign at the late prehistoric inland promontory settlement of Castell Henllys, here focusing on the defensive sequence and the role of monumentality in later prehistory. The site has international significance because of the extensive excavations of the Iron Age palisaded settlement and later earthen ramparts, complex gateway, and chevaux-de-frise of upright stones. It is now widely recognised that the Iron Age consisted of many regional cultural traditions, and the excavations at Castell Henllys provide a vital contrast to the well-known large hillfort communities in other parts of England and Wales as well as across Europe. As such, it is a unique window into a widespread but largely ignored site category and form of social and economic organisation. The publication will provide a case study for the construction and use of the earthworks of a major European late prehistoric settlement type – the Iron Age hillfort; the monumental construction is compared with other communal investments such as the Mississippian mounds. It will also offer an innovative form of site reporting, including alternative interpretations of the earthworks as either military defences or the community-binding symbols. Along with Excavation, Experiment, and Heritage Interpretation: Castell Henllys Hillfort Then and Now, these books will be required reading by those studying the late prehistoric archaeology of Britain and Europe at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate level, and by those in North America studying complex societies, monumentality, and ways of writing archaeology Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Enclosure and Monumentality: Hillforts in British and European Late Prehistory....Pages 3-10 Castell Henllys in Its Temporal, Cultural, and Intellectual Contexts....Pages 11-45 Front Matter....Pages 47-47 The Palisade and Entrance....Pages 49-71 The Interior: Roundhouses, Scoops, and Activity Areas....Pages 73-89 A Boundary in Stones: The Chevaux - de - Frise ....Pages 91-102 The Palisaded Settlement: Its Size, Character and Environmental Impact....Pages 103-117 Front Matter....Pages 119-119 Previous Research on Hillfort Ramparts and Ditches....Pages 121-129 Ramparts and Ditches on the Western Side of the Fort....Pages 131-145 The Building of a Rampart: Stratigraphy and Action Unpicked....Pages 147-183 Encircling the Promontory....Pages 185-212 Ramparts and Ditches: Evidence and Inference....Pages 213-227 Front Matter....Pages 229-229 Crossing Thresholds: Entrances in Stone....Pages 231-257 Crossing Thresholds: From Monumental to Non-monumental....Pages 259-273 An Epilogue: The Late Roman or Post-Roman Refurbishment....Pages 275-291 Front Matter....Pages 293-293 Context, Function, Meaning....Pages 295-320 Back Matter....Pages 321-336