Excavations at Hamhill, Somerset 2012

Abstract

The second phases of a three year project focused upon the interior and entrance to a Middle to Late Iron Age enclosure within the hillfort interior. In addition to the main 'open area' excavations, three trenches were opened over the hillfort ramparts - two along the northern spur, and one to the south - one of these re-opened a trench excavated in 1929 by Harold st George Gray. The trenches demonstrate the ramparts were first constructed in the Early Iron Age. In the north at least four major phases of construction were identified and are capped by occupation dating to the Early Romano-British era. Neolithic features were identified below the rampart sequence. In the south the rampart displayed no post- early Middle Iron Age horizons, which may be due to later disturbance and truncation. A stone walled Iron Age roundhouse was built into the rear of the rampart, and its floor deposits were preserved by the rampart's partial, and perhaps deliberate, collapse.