Location: Just south of Dorchester, reached via Maiden Castle Way off the A354. (SY 670885)
.Maiden Castle has few rivals, and would be near the top of
Even after nearly 2,000 years of erosion, the hanks and ditches of Maiden Castle remain impressive.
Anyone’s list of ‘'I'he Seven Wonders of Ancient Britain’. Photographs hardly do it justice - you really need to walk the miles round the top of the ramparts to properly appreciate the magnificent achievement of the men who conceived and constructed it. Having said that, we should explain that. Maiden Castle was not the result of one man’s vision, but developed gradually over many years. .Around 3000 BC, a. Neolithic causewayed camp was built on the eastern side of the natural hill, and later a large burial mound was erected on the same area. .Around 2,500 years after the hill was abandoned, about 350 BC, a small hillfort was constructed, again on the east, which soon fell into disrepair and then suddenly the fort was repaired and enlarged. .At this time a foundation sacrifice was laid in a pit, a young man whose skeleton was found during excavations this century.
Within 200 years the fort again needed restoration, and this time the ramparts we see today began to take shape. Double raitiparts were dug to the north, and treble to the south, and the inner rampart was dug very deep, 50 feet from the top of the bank to the bottom of the ditch. The entrances were made even more elaborate than they were already. The eastern entrance has been excavated, and platforms for slingers and sentry boxes
Were discovered. Beside one was a pit containing 22,260 sling-stones from nearby Chesil Beach. 'The fort may now have seemed impregnable, and we do not know how many onslaughts it may have withstood from around 100 BC until it was finally overrun in about AD 44, by the Romans. During the later construction phases, the interior of the fort vas occupied, much evidence being found in those areas that were excavated. After the Roman attack, the inhabitants were allowed to stay on at the fort, but it was finally abandoned around twenty years later and a new settlement grew up at what is now Dorchester.
D'his much is known about Maiden Castle’s history as a result of a large excavation conducted there by Sir Mortimer Wheeler during 1934-38, many of the finds being on display at Dorchester Museum. 'I'hese include part of a backbone with a Roman arrowhead embedded in it. A war cemetery was found dating from the time of the Roman attack, with thirty-eight bodies, many of the skulls showing clear sword cuts, d'o mark the \ orld. Archaeological Congress in Britain in 1986, a major new excavation is to be carried out under the direction of Dr Geoffrey Wainwright, who has said: ‘We hope this new excavation will tell us much more about who lived inside the fort prior to the siege and why, and its earlier history in. Neolithic times. W e also want to reinstate the ramparts of the fort, one of its most striking features, but which have been eroded in recent years.’
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