Swords, skulls and strongholds
A Time Team Special
First screened 19 May 2008

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Further reading

Celtic Fortifications by Ian Ralston (NPI Media Group, 2006) £18.99
From northern Scotland to southern Iberia the enclosures around hill and promontory forts are the most conspicuous component of the Iron-Age archaeological record. Ian Ralston looks at their construction and reconstruction and at the architecture of banks, walls, ramparts and ditches, gateways and ancillary features. He examines the placing of these fortifications in the landscape and their effectiveness as hillfort defences in war. He also considers these enclosures as signs and symbols. The work is completed with a selective gazetteer.

The Iron Age and its Hill Forts by Sir Mortimer Wheeler (author), Margaret Jesson and David Hall (editors) (Southampton University Archaeological Society, 1971)
Classic text on the subject, first published in Sir Mortimer Wheeler's 80th year.

Danebury Hillfort by Barry Cunliffe (The History Press, 2003) £15.99
The definitive accessible book on Danebury, bringing together the results of more than 20 years of excavations at the hillfort by the man who led them.

English Heritage Book of Maiden Castle by Niall Sharples (Batsford)
Based partly on the author's own excavations, this book provides a survey of Britain's largest hillfort, placing it in the context of the surrounding area and relating it to significant regional and national developments from the same period.

The Iron Age Hillforts of England by Geoffrey Williams (Images, 1993) hardback £8.20
This book provides a 'visitor's guide' to Iron-Age hillforts, looking at such questions as why they were built and by whom, what they were used for, and why they were abandoned. The second half of the book contains an extensive gazetteer, with histories and descriptions of 60 sites around England.

Hillforts of England and Wales by James Dyer (Shire Archaeology, 1992) £6.99
The purpose hillforts served is examined in this book. It also describes how the defences were constructed, the design of the entrances, and the buildings that were erected inside.

Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans by Francis Pryor (Perennial, 2004) paperback £9.99
Time Team prehistory expert Francis Pryor's books provide an authoritative and radical rethinking of British history, based on remarkable new archaeological finds made over the past 30 years.

Prehistoric Britain by Timothy Darvill (Routledge, 1987) paperback £22.99
Timothy Darvill examines the development of human societies in Britain from the earliest times down to the Roman Conquest, as revealed by available archaeological evidence. Special attention is given to six themes which are traced through all phases of prehistory: subsistence, technology, ritual, trade, society and population.

Other websites

For links to other websites, either on archaeology generally or specific to the Iron Age and hillforts or other subjects raised in this programme, see our extensive section on Archaeology websites.

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