Hod Hill
| Hod Hill | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 Ramparts and ditch on Hod Hill | |
| Summit: | 469 feet ST856106 50°53’42"N, 2°12’19"W |
Hod Hill (or Hodd Hill) is a chalk hill of 469 feet, above the Blackmore Vale of Dorset, which bears at its top a large hill fort.
The hill is between Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase, three miles northwest of Blandford Forum.
The fort sits on the hill. Another hill fort, on Hambledon Hill is just to the north.
Fort
The hill fort is roughly rectangular (1,970 feet by 1,310 feet), with an enclosed area of 54 acres.[1] There is a steep natural slope down to the River Stour to the west, the other sides have an artificial rampart, ditch and counterscarp (outer bank), with an additional rampart on the north side. The main entrance is at the southeast corner, with other openings at the south-west and north-east corners.
The hillfort was inhabited by the Durotriges in the late Iron Age; whether this is the same tribe who fortified the hilltop in the middle Iron Age (radiocarbon analysis suggests a date of 500 BC for the main rampart) is unknown. There is extensive evidence of settlement within the fort, including platforms for roundhouses.
Hod Hill is the second in a series of Iron Age earthworks, [2] starting from Hambledon Hill, and including Hod Hill, Spetisbury Rings, Buzbury Rings, Badbury Rings and Dudsbury Camp. The Iron Age port at Hengistbury Head forms a final Iron Age monument in this small chain of sites.
The hill was captured in AD 43 by the Roman Second Legion (Augusta), led by Vespasian, who had already captured Maiden Castle and other hill forts to the south. Eleven iron ballista bolts have been found on the hill, clustered in the so-called "Chieftain's hut" area (two hut circles, one of which had an enclosure around it) but there are no other signs of a struggle, suggesting the Durotriges surrendered to the superior Roman army.
The Romans built a camp covering 2,153 square feet) in the northwest corner of the original fort, occupied by a mixed force of 720 legionaries and auxiliaries. The fort was used as a base for about 5 or 6 years, but passed out of use by about AD 50, when troops were withdrawn for the campaigns against Caractacus in the west, and the remaining men were moved to a new fort further west at Waddon Hill.
The site was excavated in the 1950s by Sir Ian Richmond[3] and his final report was published in 1969.
Wildlife
Today the hill is an important calcareous grassland habitat, home to spectacular wild flowers and butterflies.[4]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hod Hill) |
References
- ↑ An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 3: Central (1970), pp. XXXV-LXII
- ↑ 'Hill Forts of the Stour Valley' by David E. C. Jardine, 1985, Bournemouth Local Studies Publications
- ↑ Miles 1978: p 67
- ↑ "Hod Hill perambulation". National Trust website. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wra-1356322822892/view-page/item604083/.
- Castles from the air, Roly Smith (2000), in The Guardian
- The Making Of The Dorset Landscape, Christopher Taylor, Hodder & Stoughton (London 1970)
- Dorset and the Second Legion, Norman Field (1992), ISBN 1-871164-11-7
- Miles, David (1978). An introduction to archaeology (1st edition ed.). Great Britain: Ward Lock. ISBN 0-7063-5725-6. Contains a hand-drawn, plan-view illustration of the site on page 67