Function 2: Social, Economic, Ritual

Abstract

In southern England, in terms of prevailing environmental conditions most hillforts could have been occupied or used on a permanent rather than seasonal basis. With the exception of Exmoor and Dartmoor in the far south-west, none are located above the 300m contour and therefore could potentially have sustained a mixed agricultural regime. In northern England, Wales, and Scotland, on the other hand, there are hillforts at altitudes that make seasonal use more likely, although even with some of the larger hillforts in southern Scotland and Northumberland, like Eildon Hill, Hownam Law, and Yeavering Bell, higher altitude may not have precluded occupation on a significant scale. We have already seen that some hillforts in southern Scotland and the Cheviots show ample evidence of occupation in the form of house stances, so that a residential function as a primary purpose is hardly in doubt. Sites like Hayhope Knowe or Camp Tops may be categorized as protected villages, and though some might seem scarcely to qualify as hillforts at all (Frodsham et al. 2007), others like Sundhope Kipp boast defensive earthworks, which seem almost disproportionate in scale to the area of the internal settlement. Sometimes the houses are so densely arranged within the interior as to exclude the possibility of division into different activity zones, unless some of these seemingly identical roundhouses actually served as workshops or stores rather than just for domestic occupation. Despite their relatively high altitude and exposed locations, there is every reason to believe that some sites were permanently occupied, since evidence of cord-rig agriculture often lies in immediate proximity to the enclosure. Even so, these cultivation plots must have been on the margins of viability in the Iron Age, and it is possible that these Borders upland sites by the later first millennium BC were used only seasonally. Indeed, progressive environmental deterioration may be a reason why the earthwork phase of enclosure at Hayhope Knowe was never completed. Archaeologically it is hard to point to evidence that might distinguish seasonal from permanent occupation. The number of buildings may be indicative of the intensity of use, but might stake-wall construction with numerous episodes of rebuilding indicate seasonal construction, as opposed to more permanent post-built houses? On the other hand, stone foundations could have been renovated seasonally in a manner than might be hard to distinguish archaeologically from permanent use.