Hembury
| Hembury Fort | |
|
Devon | |
|---|---|
 Ramparts inside Hembury hillfort | |
| Type: | Hillfort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST112031 |
| Location: | 50°49’14"N, 3°15’43"W |
| History | |
| Built Neolithic / Iron Age | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Earthworks remain |
| Owned by: | National Trust |
| Website: | hemburyfort.co.uk |
Hembury is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and Iron Age hill fort near Honiton in eastren Devon. The occupaiton of the site stretches from the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC forward to the Roman invasion in the first century AD.
The fort is on a south facing promontory at the end of a ridge 787 feet high in the Blackdown Hills. It lies to the north of and overlooking the River Otter valley and this location was probably chosen to give good surveillance of the surrounding countryside as well as for pure defence.[1]
Stages of occupation
Originally a neolithic site, an Iron Age hill fort was later built on the same site.[2]
The site was excavated between 1930 and 1935 by Dorothy Liddell. She identified a timber framed entrance to the causewayed enclosure and an oval arrangement of postholes in the middle which she interpreted as being a building destroyed by fire before the enclosure earthworks were built. Other evidence of neolithic occupation included pottery, flints, axes, querns and charred grain.[3]
During an excavation in the 1980s headed by Malcolm Todd, archaeological evidence was found on the site of Roman military occupation, suggesting a fort within the existing Iron Age site.[4]
Hembury ware
The site has given its name to some of the earliest Neolithic pottery in southern Britain after a large collection of pieces of this type of pottery were found during the excavations by Dorothy Liddell.[5]
Hemburyware pottery was generally characterised by round bottomed bowls with lug handles. Much of it was made further west, around The Lizard using Gabbroic clay and it was traded throughout the British Isles. It was made at the end of the fifth millenium BC and early 4th millenium BC.[6] Several pieces of Hembury ware Gabbro pottery are on display in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, Devon.[7]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hembury) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1018850: Hembury Fort
- ↑ Sellman, R.R.: 'Aspects of Devon History', Pages 7–13 (Devon Books, 1985) ISBN 0-86114-756-1
- ↑ Devon & Dartmoor Historic Environment Record. "Hembury Fort Neolithic Settlement". http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV5327&resourceID=104. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
- ↑ "Professor Malcolm Todd". The Times. 18 July 2013. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article3818750.ece. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 1181774 – Hembury Causewayed Enclosure
- ↑ Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert (2008). A Dictionary of Archaeology. John Wiley & Sons. p. 272. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8HKDtlPuM2oC&pg=PA272&lpg=PA272&dq=hembury+ware+gabbroic&source=bl&ots=LJ90UgkJMQ&sig=PiOuP-HQ9aS8WSSNjg-n7p1j6Pg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjcxOD0h67QAhXMKMAKHavJCGMQ6AEIMDAE#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
- ↑ Hembury Fort