For example, Solsbury Hill was sacked and deserted during the Belgic invasions of southern Britain in the 1st century BC. Hillforts were frequently occupied by conquering armies, but on other occasions the forts were destroyed, the local people forcibly evicted, and the forts left derelict. By this time the larger ones had become more like cities than fortresses and many were assimilated as Roman towns. Julius Caesar described the large late Iron Age hillforts he encountered during his campaigns in Gaul as oppida. ĭuring the Hallstatt C period, hillforts became the dominant settlement type in the west of Hungary. They served a range of purposes and were variously tribal centres, defended places, foci of ritual activity, and places of production. Around 1100 BC hillforts emerged and in the following centuries spread through Europe. As the population increased so did the complexity of prehistoric societies. With the emergence of oppida in the Late Iron Age, settlements could reach as large as 10,000 inhabitants. Hillforts were the exception, and were the home of up to 1,000 people. Outside Greece and Italy, which were more densely populated, the vast majority of settlements in the Iron Age were small, with perhaps no more than 50 inhabitants. It has been estimated that in about 5000 BC during the Neolithic between 2 million and 5 million lived in Europe in the Late Iron Age it had an estimated population of around 15 to 30 million. Prehistoric Europe saw a growing population. 1200 BC – 500 BC) late Bronze Age to early Iron Age Urnfield culture and Atlantic Bronze Age (c.They are most common during later periods: These are known as hill-slope enclosures and may have been animal pens. Similar but smaller and less defendable earthworks are found on the sides of hills. Many small early hillforts were abandoned, with the larger and greater ones being redeveloped at a later date.
They all refer to an elevated site with one or more ramparts made of earth, stone and/or wood, with an external ditch. The Monument Type Thesaurus published by the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage lists hillfort as the preferred term. The spellings "hill fort", "hill-fort" and "hillfort" are all used in the archaeological literature.
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