More information : [SU 54708615] Blewburton Hill [T.I.] Hill Fort [G.T.] (1)
Excavation of the earthwork on Blewburton Hill by A.E.P.Collins
in 1947-9, revealed an Iron Age 'A' settlement dating from
circa 300 B.C., evidenced by much pottery, grain storage pits, post holes, and the trench of a timber palisade.
This was followed by the construction of typical bank and ditch
hill-fort defences showing two periods of construction - 'AB'
and 'B'. The bank had been fairly massive and the ditch
measured 18-38 feet in width, being as little as 5 feet deep in
the first period but reaching at least 15 feet in cutting J in
the second period. The entrance on the southwest side was found to have a made causeway and the post-holes of double gates (cuttings H and J on plan; see AO/LP/63/61.)
Flints of Neolithic or Early Bronze Age type were found in the
lower end of cutting G, and the blade of a polished stone axe
in the ditch north of the entrance.
A small number of Roman sherds, (1st and 3rd-4th century) were
found, but these may be considered strays the site being
deserted during the Roman period.
Four Saxon burials were found in cuttings G and G1, and three
more in cutting J. they may be part of a cemetery and are dated
by Leeds as probably 5th century A.D. (2-3). Another Saxon
burial was found just below the turf-crest of the hill-fort in
July 1945. The associated grave goods: two bronze brooches (Leeds cross potent derivative group c) and nine glass beads are in the possession of Mrs.Mornington Higgs. (4-5)
Of the unusual terrace or lynchet-type features all that can be
said is that they are definitely post Iron Age but that their
function is still an open question. (2) (3) Scheduled (7) (2-8)
The bank and ditch of the hillfort defences do not exist as
original features.
The rampart has been reduced to a negative lynchet which in the
eastern half of the hillfort has been ploughed down and in part
entirely destroyed. The course of the ditch is to some extent
represented by a flat terrace in the western half but has been
completely destroyed in the eastern half. Near the original
entrance there are two short stretches of bank along the top of
the upper lynchet and the lip of the terrace below but both may
be the result of modern cultivation.
O.S.25" revised. (9)
The dates of various periods of construction of Blewburton
Hillfort, given by A.E.P.Collins from the evidence of his
excavations, have been altered by Mrs. M. A. Cotton on the
basis of Hawkes's re-assessment of Iron Age chronology:
1) First phase of occupation was a small timber palisaded farm
or village of Southern Second 'A', circa 350 B.C.
2) Univallate defence erected, Southern Second 'A', anti-
invasion of Southern First 'B', circa 300 B.C.
3) The site was re-fortified in Southern Second 'B', ? anti-
Belgic. Not possible to give reasonably accurate date.
4) There was no occupation of the site in the Roman period but
a "noteworthy" Anglo-Saxon cemetery was found. (10)
Excavation yielded evidence of timber lacing for ramparts, which has here to fore been missing in hillforts of Southern Britain. (11)
Blewburton Hill, in Blewbury and Aston Upthorpe, at SU 547 862, is scheduled as an Ancient Monument (Oxon. No. 205). (12)
An excavation by D.W.Harding in 1967 investigated the rampart and ditch on the north side of the hillfort. The rampart was shown to be of two phases, dated to circa C4 and C2-C1 B.C., and outside the main ditch a counterscarp bank and a second ditch were discovered. On the west side the same sequence was found, but the first chalk rampart has been contained within a timber framework. In the entrance area a defensive ditch was discovered to extend across the back of the entrance way, and 2 house skeletons and 2 more Anglo-Saxon graves were found. Stripping of part of the interior confirmed that only
half of the 10 acre hillfort had been occupied by the earlier Iron
Age camp with its palisade trench. Finds included pottery, 2 shale
pendants, fragments of shale bracelets and an iron currency bar.
This seems to have been occupied more intensively than most of the hillforts in the region, and the fortifications are complex. The
plan of the first hillfort entrance with its rear blocking ditch is
unique in Britain. (13)
A fuller account of the investigations on Blewburton Hill is given.
To the north of the western entrance to the camp a further cremation burial was found, indicating that the cemetery may be more extensive than had been thought. The threefold pattern of palisade/box-rampart/dump-rampart is fairly consistent, but the absolute dating for these structural horizons is very subjective, particularly for the earlier periods. Pottery suggests an ultimate Bronze Age occupation, transtional into the earliest Iron Age. Provisionally, therefore, the construction of the stockaded camp appears to have occured in the C7-C6 B.C., with the first hillfort proper being constructed in the C6-C5 B.C.
The hillfort seems to have been re-occupied at the end of the C2 or beginning of the C1 B.C., continuing until the site was abandoned before the end of the century. It lay derelict through the Roman period but was used as a cemetery by early Saxons. (14)
The type of decoration seen on about 28 Iron Age sherds from
Blewburton Hill (now in Reading Museum) is described. (15)
Three examples of Anglo-Saxon pots from Blewburton Hill (now in
Reading Museum) are described and drawn. (16)
12 Saxon burials of the 22 found have been dated to between 450 and 550 A.D. (17)
Other reference. (18)
SU 547 862. Blewburton Hill. Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 4.3ha. (19)
Blewburton Hill. Description and plan. Suggested as a series of parallel lynchets rather than a hillfort. (20)
Account of excavations on the site by AEP and FP Collins in 1953. (21)
The hillfort fall within the area mapped from aerial photographs by the Lambourn Downs NMP project. No additional information was obtained from aerial photographs, nor were the internal features visible. (22)
The cemetery comprised 22 inhumations and one cremation. The majority were accompanied by grave goods which included brooches, buckles, knives, a spearhead, and glass and amber beads. The grave goods indicate an early Saxon date for the cemetery. (23) |