The Castle Hill hillfort

Important landscape
One of the 'clumps' at Wittenham is known as Castle Hill. It's a classic Iron-Age hillfort with huge earthworks creating defensive banks and ditches.

'You'd need all day to discuss what hillforts actually are and unravel their purpose,' says Mick Aston. 'This would certainly have been an important landscape – that goes without saying.'

Boundary site
The Castle Hill site sits right on the boundary of three major Iron-Age tribal territories belonging to the Catuvellauni, Atrebates and Dobunni peoples. Whatever role the hillfort played at the time, it must have been influential and important simply because of its position.

'The problem is that there are hardly any sites in Britain that really show you what one of these places would have looked like back in the Iron Age,' continues Mick. 'We have some very impressive examples of earthworks, but no modern reconstructions that fully illustrate the sheer scale of what the ramparts, and things like timber palisades, would have looked like. There are some in France that have been very well done, but not here.'

Ridgeway
To the south of the site runs the Ridgeway, a prehistoric track and economic lifeline for the south of Britain. 'This really is a great landscape,' enthuses Mick. 'It has so much archaeology. I've done a lot of work in this Thames basin and feel quite close to it.'

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