 | |
  Location of the site in Somerset | |
| Location | NearSouth Cadbury andYeovil,Somerset,England |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°1′26.76″N2°31′54.48″W / 51.0241000°N 2.5318000°W /51.0241000; -2.5318000 |
| Type | Hillfort |
| History | |
| Periods | Iron Age |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | Some damage |
Cadbury Castle is aBronze andIron Agehillfort in thecivil parish ofSouth Cadbury in theEnglishcounty ofSomerset. It is ascheduled monument[1] and has been associated withKing Arthur's legendary court atCamelot.
The hillfort is formed by a 7.28 hectares (18.0 acres) plateau surrounded byramparts on the surrounding slopes of thelimestone Cadbury Hill. The site has been excavated in the late 19th and early 20th century by James Bennett andHarold St George Gray. More recent examination of the site was conducted in the 1960s byLeslie Alcock and since 1992 by the South Cadbury Environs Project. These have revealed artifacts from human occupation and use from theNeolithic through the Bronze and Iron Ages. The site was reused by the Roman forces and again from c. 470 until some time after 580. In the 11th century, it temporarily housed a Saxonmint. Evidence of various buildings at the site has been unearthed, including a "Great Hall", round and rectangular house foundations, metalworking, and a possible sequence of small rectangulartemples or shrines.
Thesuffix-bury (frombyrig, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "fort" or "town") is frequently, but not exclusively, used to refer to hill-forts. The first part of the name may come from theRiver Cam, as with the nearby villages ofWest Camel andQueen Camel.[2][3][4] Other scholars suggest a derivation from some figure named "Cador" or "Cada".[5] It is one of three sites in Somerset to include the Cadbury name, the others beingCadbury Camp, nearTickenham, andCadbury Hill, which is also known as Cadbury-Congresbury to distinguish it from the other sites.
Hillforts developed in theLate Bronze andEarly Iron ages, around the start of the 1st millennium BC.[6] The reason for their emergence inprehistoric Britain and their purpose has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture. The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use ofiron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits ofiron ore were located in different places from thetin andcopper ore necessary to makebronze and, as a result, trading patterns shifted. The old elites lost their economic and social status and power passed into the hands of a new group of people.[7]
ArchaeologistBarry Cunliffe believes that population increase still played a role and has stated that
the forts provided defensive possibilities for the community at those times when the stress of an increasing population burst out into open warfare. But I would not see them as having been built because there was a state of war. They would be functional as defensive strongholds when there were tensions and undoubtedly some of them were attacked and destroyed, but this was not the only, or even the most significant, factor in their construction.[8]
Cadbury Castle is located 5 miles (8.0 km) north east ofYeovil. It stands on the summit ofCadbury Hill, alimestone hill situated on the southern edge of theSomerset Levels, with flat lowland to the north. The summit is 153 m (500 ft) above sea-level onlias stone.[9][10]
The hill is surrounded by terraced earthwork banks and ditches and a stand of trees. On the north west and south sides there are fourramparts, with two remaining on the east. The summit plateau covers 7.28 hectares (18.0 acres),[11][12] and is surrounded by the inner bank which is 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) long.[13] The hill fort is overlooked bySigwells, a rural plateau rich in archaeological remains. Due to scrub and tree growth the site has been added to theHeritage at Risk Register.[14][15]Further information on the dig and hill fort can be found a short walk down the road on Somerset Heritage Panels which have been erected in the local pub The Camelot Inn.[16]
The earliest settlement on the site is represented by pits and post holes dated withNeolithic pottery andflints.[17] These are the remains of a small agricultural settlement which was unenclosed.[18] Bones recovered from the site have beenradiocarbon dated to 3500 and 3300 BC.[11] A bank under the later Iron Age defences is likely to be a lynchet or terrace derived from early ploughing of the hilltop. The site was also occupied in the Late Bronze Age, from which ovens have been identified.[19] Radical revisions of the Bronze Age archaeology on the lower slopes[20] resulted from discoveries during excavations and survey work by the South Cadbury Environs Project.[21] Finds include the first Bronze Age shield from an excavation in northwest Europe, an example of the distinctiveYetholm-type. The shield dates from the period 1350–1150 BC.[22][23] A metal-working building and associated enclosure were discovered 2 km (1.2 mi) south east of the hillfort, roughly contemporary with the period of manufacture.[24] Some of the diagnostic pottery for the early hases of the site were discovered byMary Harfield.[25][26][27][28]
Human occupation continued throughout the Iron Age.[12] A stoneenclosure was constructed around 300 BC with timberrevetting, and ploughing ceased within the hilltop site. Excavations have shown the signs of four and six post rectangular buildings which were gradually replaced withroundhouses.[18] Large ramparts and elaborate timber defences were constructed and refortified over the following centuries. Excavation revealed round and rectangular house foundations, metalworking, and a possible sequence of small rectangulartemples or shrines,[29][30] indicating permanentoppidum-like occupation.[31] Excavations were undertaken by local clergyman James Bennett in 1890 andHarold St George Gray in 1913, followed by major work led by archaeologistLeslie Alcock from 1966 to 1970.[11][32] He identified a long sequence of occupation on the site and many of the finds are displayed in theMuseum of Somerset inTaunton.[22] The finds from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, exploring the ramparts and southwestern gate structure, represent one of the deepest and most complex Iron Agestratigraphic sequences excavated in southern Britain.[33]
During the first century BC, additional lines of bank and ditch were constructed, turning it into ahill fort which is now known as thecastle.[18] There is evidence that the fort was violently taken around AD 43 and that the defences were further slighted later in the first century after the construction of a Roman army barracks on the hilltop.[34] Excavations of the southwest gate in 1968 and 1969 revealed evidence for one or more severe violent episodes associated with weaponry and destruction by fire.[35] Leslie Alcock believed this to have been dated to around AD 70,[36] whereas Richard Tabor argues for a date associated with the initial invasion around AD 43 or 44.[37] Michael Havinden states that it was the site of vigorous resistance by theDurotriges andDobunni to thesecond Augusta Legion under the command ofVespasian.[38] There was significant activity at the site during the late third and fourth centuries, which may have included the construction of a Romano-British temple.[39]
Following thewithdrawal of the Roman administration, the site is thought to have been in use fromc. 470 until some time after 580.[11] Alcock revealed a substantial "Great Hall" 20 by 10 metres (66 ft × 33 ft) and showed that the innermost Iron Age defences had been refortified, providing a defended site double the size of any other known fort of the period. Shards of pottery from the eastern Mediterranean were also found from this period, indicating wide trade links.[40][41] It therefore seems probable that it was the chief fort of a majorBrythonic ruler, with his family, his warband, servants, and horses.[42]Between 1010 and 1020, the hill was reoccupied for use as a temporary Saxon mint, standing in for that atIlchester.[11][43][44][45][46]
According to theDomesday Book, Cadbury Castle appears to have been part of the feudal barony ofNorth Cadbury held byTurstin FitzRolf in 1086.[47]Some small-scale fortification of the site may also have occurred in the 13th century.[48]
Local tradition, first written down byJohn Leland in 1542, holds that Cadbury Castle wasKing Arthur'sCamelot.[49][50] The site and the Great Hall are extensive, and the writerGeoffrey Ashe argued that it was the base for the Arthur of history.[51] His opinion has not been widely accepted by students of the period.[52]
Militarily, the location makes sense as a place where refugees and the southwestern Brythons ofDumnonia could have defended themselves against attacks from the east. If Arthur was indeed conceived atTintagel, as tradition asserts,[53] he may have been a prince of Dumnonia and used Cadbury as a stronghold on his eastern frontier.[54]
The recent work on the archaeology of the site and the surrounding area has been carried out by the South Cadbury Environs Project. Since 1992 the project team, which included local volunteers South East Somerset Archaeological and Historical Society and the Yeovil Archaeology and Local History Society, have carried outgeophysical surveys includinggradiometry andelectrical resistivity tomography,[55] ploughzone sampling,[56]test pits,[57] deeper excavations[58] andgeographic information system (GIS) approaches.[59] The project had input from academics and archaeologists from the universities ofBristol,Glasgow,Birmingham andOxford, funded by theLeverhulme Trust andArts and Humanities Research Council.[60] The project studies the castle and surrounding area up to 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) away, using landscape sampling,[61]
Arthur prince of Dumnonia Cadbury.
