Dorset Hillforts and Anglo -Romano villas: A Brief but Fascinating Overview
In this 21st century age, where many people, especially online contributors, seem to need conspiracy theories, sensationalized content, or fake news to inspire their engagement with the world, I propose that what they really need do is simply observe the incredible natural landscapes around them.
By doing so, they might find a sense of wonder and awe that would remind them of the true magnificence of themselves, humanity in general and the incredible planet we all currently inhabit.
And one way to acheive that is to appreciate that intriguing Hollywood tales of lore like The Lord of the Rings are just fictional stories and locations to be viewed on a pay per view digital channel whereas we actually have real life representations and natural and archaological remains of such mythology all around us if only folk would appreciate that fact.
I’m no historian, or a paleontologist, but what greater epic tale might there be to observe from our time machine than to witness a rag tag bunch of early hunter-gatherer homo sapien humans crossing an ice bridge from Europe to set up home and estabish a presence on what we know know to be a little island yet to have ever felt the footprints of our own species?
Though, sure, yes, Britain had already been home to some of our ancient cousins including Homo heidelbergensis, who inhabited the region nearly half a million years prior AND Neanderthals who had been in Britain 20,000 years before our own Homo Sapien human Mesolithic tribes had even arrived.
Thus …
Our West Dorset Human story begins ...
Imagine; 11,300 years ago, the Devensian British-Irish Ice Sheet that had been covering two thirds of our island has receded and a land we today know at Britain is reborn, reformed and renewed.
The ocean now ebbs and flows along a new coastline and, whereas, the old shore once lied miles south, being now submerged and “out to sea”, (level with the tip of the peninsula we today recognise as Portland island), there is now a new feature, a new beach pushed up in what had once been an inland location a couple of miles north.
The ocean now ebbs and flows along a new reshaped coastline.
The old shallower Ice Age shoreline, once miles south of today’s topography, originally lay off the tip of what we recognize as Portland Island. In its place, a spectacular feature has formed miles north of where that previous shoreline now lies submerged offshore.
That new feature is a rare and recent natural phenomenon, an 18 metre high shingle tombola structure formed from the ancient gravel of a long gone prehistoric riverbed that once ran the length of what is now a tidal English channel.
Today, as a gift of nature left to us after the Ice Age ice sheets melted away, and famous and known throughout the world over, Chesil Beach exists as a striking 18-mile shingle barrier beach connecting the Isle of Portland to the mainland at one end and Bridport Harbour and West Bay at the other.
Its tidal lagoon, an environmental gem teeming with wildlife and nutrient rich sandflats, creates a home for wild oysters, nurseries of young bass and rare and unique birds and wildfowl rarely seen anywhere else in the UK.
Isn’t it extra-ordinary to comprehend that one of the world’s most magical and extra-ordinary coastlines, a part of the world famous Natural Heritage Site known as “The Jurassic Coast”, has actually only been in existence for little more than 11,000 or 12,000 years?
And at my very favourite West Dorset location just 20 miles west of Chesil beach, at Thorncombe Beacon, we discover evidence to confirm that the very first ancient Metholithic hunter- gather tribes to inhabit the UK, (and certainly West Dorset), left evidence of their existence via pot shards and flints found along the downs that, today, make up the Thorncombe Beacon promantory that, as I type these words, is slowly but surely being reclaimed by the ocean and falling back into the sea!
Mesolithic Period (c. 10,000 – 4,000 BCE):
In the Mesolithic era, the UK was inhabited by hunter-gatherer communities who lived a nomadic lifestyle, relying on hunting, fishing, and foraging. These early people used stone tools and moved with the seasons.
Neolithic Period (c. 4,000 – 2,500 BCE):
The Neolithic era marked the shift to farming, with communities settling in one place, cultivating crops, and domesticating animals. This period saw the construction of significant megalithic structures like Stonehenge, reflecting early societal organization.
Bronze Age (c. 2,500 – 800 BCE):
During the Bronze Age, metalworking introduced new technologies and more complex social structures. Communities became more hierarchical, and new burial practices emerged, alongside the growth of permanent settlements.
Iron Age and Hillforts (c. 800 BCE – Roman Conquest):
In the Iron Age, communities built hillforts—large, defensible structures located on elevated ground. These fortifications served as centers for trade, craft production, and social organization, reflecting a more structured and hierarchical society. The Iron Age marked the culmination of centuries of cultural and technological evolution from the earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.
Conclusion:
Hillforts represent the advanced social and technological developments of Iron Age communities in the UK, who transitioned from early hunter-gatherer societies through farming and metalworking to create these impressive structures.
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