SECRETS OF THE OLDEST TOWN IN BRITAIN

Evening Post, Issue 86, 11 April 1936, Page 21

SECRETS OF THE OLDEST TOWN IN BRITAIN

The secrets of what is probably the oldest, occupied site in this country for which a continuous record can be traced are now being revealed. This is the result of excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorset, the greatest of English earthworks, says a writer in the "Daily Telegraph."

Old it was known to be, built by some race of Britons back in prehistoric times. What was not known, and is now revealed, is that the height upon which it stands held a hill town, or village, in the Stone Age, 15 centuries or more before the gigantic earth fortress came into existence about 2000 years ago.

1 The Society of Antiquaries for two years past has been exploring the earthwork. Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler, under whose skilled direction the work has been done, reported to the Society at Burlington House what excavation' had disclosed. •

The Stone Age folk, he said, had surrounded their village with intermittent ditches 'characteristic of the early Downland settlements. Large numbers of flint axes and other implements, primitive pottery, and weaving combs made of deerhorn, indicated their stage of life. They engaged in agriculture and stock raising. Their oxen were of a large breed long since extinct.

.' After this occupation the hill-top was left derelict for several centuries. Increased dryness of the climate probably drove the people down into the valleys.

In about the fourth century B.C. Maiden Castle, repeopled, appears in its first form, a small enclosure of some 15 acres with a single rampart and ditch. The one entrance, east, was flanked by stout timber pallisades; their sockets were discovered last summer. Later the area of the hill town was trebled.

Invaders coming from the west

about 100 8.C., said Dr. Wheeler, interrupted a period' of relatively,~peaceful agricultural development. .It jvas these newcomers who redesigned and built the defences of Maiden Castle on their present huge scale, adding the carefully-guarded entrances. They brought with them a new culture and a new method of construction.

Despite its military aspect and use as a place of refuge, the hill city seemed on the whole to have had a placid existence. Its populace, mainly engaged in farm pursuits, is estimated to have reached 5000, a very large city population in that early age. A scarcity of important objects among the finds indicated a limited commercial activity.

Shortly after the Roman conquest' of Britain in the first century A.D., Maiden Castle was abandoned. Its people doubtless were removed to the new Roman town raised on the site of modern Dorchester.

That, however, was not the end. Three centuries later a small RomanoCeltic temple was built within. the earthwork.

The road approaching a new gateway to Maiden Castle then constructed had been found. Upon its surface were still traced the wheel-ruts of small vehicles which presumably had brought Roman or British worshippers or pilgrims to the temple. Roman coins and relics have been found in these later deposits.

Associated with Dr. Wheeler in' unveiling Maiden Castle are his wife, Mrs. Tessa Wheeler, and Lieut.-Colonel C. D. Drew, of the Dorset Antiquarian Society. Work will be resumed, with hopes of further discoveries, at the end of next July.

Visitors are admitted to the site, which is easily accessible from Dorchester. Thousands inspected the place last summer holidays.