Iron Age Hillfort Defences And The Tactics Of Sling Warfare

Sling accuracy at a hillfort is measured here for the first time, in a controlled experiment comparing attack and defence across single and developed ramparts.

Highlights the achievements of prehistoric people in Britain and Ireland over a 5,000 year period.

This is a detailed study of the archaeology of Roman Winchester—Venta Belgarum, a major town in the south of the province of Britannia— and its development from the regional (civitas) capital of the Iron Age people, the Belgae, who inhabited much of what is now central and southern Hampshire.

Pyrrhus was one of the most tireless and famous warriors of the Hellenistic Age that followed the dispersal of Alexander the Great's brief empire. After inheriting the throne as a boy, and a period of exile, he began a career of alliances and expansion, in particular against the region's rising power: Rome. Gathering both Greek and Italian allies into a very large army (which included war-elephants), he crossed to Italy in 280 BC, but lost most of his force in a series of costly victories at Heraclea and Asculum, as well as a storm at sea. After a campaign in Sicily against the Carthaginians, he was defeated by the Romans at Beneventum and was forced to withdraw. Undeterred, he fought wars in Macedonia and Greece, the last of which cost him his life. Fully illustrated with detailed colour plates, this is the story of one of the most renowned warrior-kings of the post-Alexandrian age, whose costly encounters with Republican Rome have become a byword for victory won at unsustainable cost.

Widely regarded as major visible field monuments of the Iron Age, hillforts are central to an understanding of later prehistoric communities in Britain and Europe from the later Bronze Age. With such a range of variants represented, no single explanation of their function or social significance could satisfy all possible interpretations of their role. While they are conventionally viewed as defence settlements or regional centres controlled by a social elite, this role has been challenged in recent years, and instead hillforts are being considered primarily as expressions of social identity with strong ritual and cosmological associations. Current hillfort interpretations are in danger of reflecting contemporary social sensitivities more strongly than any recognizable Iron Age priorities, and the need for critical analysis of basic archaeological evidence is paramount. Critically reviewing the evidence of hillforts in Britain, in the wider context of Ireland and continental Europe, the volume focuses on their structural features, chronology, landscape context, and their social, economic and symbolic functions, and is well illustrated throughout with site plans, reconstruction drawings, and photographs. Harding reviews the changing perceptions of hillforts and the future prospects for hillfort research, highlighting aspects of contemporary investigation and interpretation.

The Celtic World is a detailed and comprehensive study of the Celts from the first evidence of them in the archaeological and historical record to the early post-Roman period. The strength of this volume lies in its breadth - it looks at archaeology, language, literature, towns, warfare, rural life, art, religion and myth, trade and industry, political organisations, society and technology. The Celtic World draws together material from all over pagan Celtic Europe and includes contributions from British, European and American scholars. Much of the material is new research which is previously unpublished. The book addresses some important issues - Who were the ancient Celts? Can we speak of them as the first Europeans? In what form does the Celtic identity exist today and how does this relate to the ancient Celts? For anyone interested in the Celts, and for students and academics alike, The Celtic World will be a valuable resource and a fascinating read.

Oxbow says: This study re-evaluates many of the misconceptions about the war-crazed Iron Age warrior hero, and questions anew the role of hillforts as truly, or primarily, defensive structures. Taking a regional approach to Middle Iron Age warfare, Finney examines hillforts and weaponry from lowland Britain.