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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Durotriges Dig
@durotrigesdig.bsky.social
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Investigating the Iron Age and Roman period in SW Britain. Bournemouth University #HillfortsWednesday Posts (mostly) by Miles Russell
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · Nov 16
Hello, we're the Durotriges Project 👋

If you're here for updates on prehistoric Dorset, archaeology info or just to look at pictures of Iron Age / Roman artefacts, we hope you'll find something of interest

#Durotriges25

⚠️ warning: may contain random references to #DoctorWho and #HypocaustGate
A complete Late Iron Age Black Burnished Ware pot from the #Durotriges24 excavation
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Very pleased that the Durotriges Project pit burials have been cited by the BBC as one of the top UK archaeological discoveries of 2025 alongside @buarchanth.bsky.social 13th century *Mortar Wreck* and @arcdurham.bsky.social work on the Iron Age Melsonby Hoard 😊👍

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Three archaeologists in hi viz vests and hard hats excavate a prehistoric burial at the base of a cylindrical chalk cut pit A diver cleans the surface of a carved stone coffin lid at the bottom of the sea A decorated copper alloy mount from and Iron Age assemblage
December 30, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
nationaltrust.org.uk
Thank you for supporting our Crowdfunder. It is open until 4 January 2026 so there’s still time to make a donation and be in the draw to win a chance to get hands-on at Cerne Abbas: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/cerne-abba...
nationaltrust.org.uk National Trust @nationaltrust.org.uk · Dec 3
We’ve launched a Crowdfunder to help us reach our target. This runs to 4th January 2026 and those who donate to the Crowdfunder will be entered into a prize draw with a chance to get hands-on at the giant re-chalking event in 2026: buff.ly/rXcf4Ao
Aerial view of the hill at Cerne Abbas with the white chalk giant outline. Text reads, We can supersize nature. The graphic of an orange butterfly sits over the text.
January 2, 2026 at 9:01 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
antiquity.ac.uk
Mothers and infants are generally underrepresented in historical accounts. Examining mother and infant burials from Iron Age and Roman England allows us to observe the multi-generational impact of Roman occupation on health #WednesdayWisdom 🏺 #Archaeology

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Two maps of southern Britain, showing locations of sites with human skeletal remains selected for analysis. Left: Iron Age settlements; right: Roman settlements and their proximity to Roman roads.
December 31, 2025 at 9:35 PM
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elmtreem.bsky.social
Up to Rhigos mountain this morning for a fairly brief visit to the Iron Age settlement - was pretty windy, cold and wet! But I love it up there anytime of year and the sky was pretty beautiful in its way. Now to get to the rest of my days plan which is to generally laze about 😌🛀🛌
January 1, 2026 at 12:29 PM
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
The truly terrifying tale of the archaeologist with banana fingers 🤣
spaceshipmark.bsky.social Mark S. Williamson @spaceshipmark.bsky.social · 2d
This just showed up on my Facebook thing…!

@durotrigesdig.bsky.social
December 30, 2025 at 6:38 PM
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megsdigs.bsky.social
#diggingforbritain Series 13 here we come! First episode on BBC2 and iPlayer on Jan 7th 9pm✨
December 30, 2025 at 1:25 PM
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kpw1453.bsky.social
Happy New Year and good fortune to everyone during 2026! Below is a relief of the Roman goddess Fortuna which was found at Castlecary Roman Fort on the Antonine Wall. Now part of the collections at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. 📸 My own. #RomanFortThursday #NewYear
January 1, 2026 at 7:38 AM
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stirlingfellow.bsky.social
So admittedly it’s “only” a Bronze Age bowl barrow, so doesn’t quite make the grade for #HillfortsWednesday - but still Win Green clump makes a fine vantage point to watch the sun set on 2025. Happy New Year!
December 31, 2025 at 8:41 PM
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drnwillburger.bsky.social
As 2026 approaches a happy new year's toast to you all with this marvellous 4th century Roman cage-cup, which bears an inscription, a toast that reads:

BIBE MULTIS ANNIS - Drink for many years!

Cheers and here's to a far better year in 2026! 🥂

#NewYear2026 🍀
A close-up of a cage cup. It comprises an inner, translucent glass beaker and an outer decorative shell. The shell, affixed to the beaker via short stems or shanks, features circles at its body and an inscription at its top.
December 31, 2025 at 7:21 AM
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Happy New Year (and happy #HillfortsWednesday) to you all from the Durotriges Project 🥳

(detail from 🖼 © Michael Leonard 1973 to accompany the Sunday Times series *Discovering Ancient Britain* written by Barry Cunliffe)

Hope to see you for more Iron Age fun in 2026 😊
Reconstruction painting of a not terribly happy looking Iron Age family standing in front of a stone built roundhouse
December 31, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
mzdt.bsky.social
No better day to post for #HillFortsWednesday.

Garn Goch, nr Llandeilo: As ever difficult to appreciate from the ground, but a really sizeable place...
the info board for Garn Goch view across the hillside, showing stones in the distance and a small dog pulling at a long lead a large section of stone, more of a cairn than a wall more stones ;-)
December 31, 2025 at 6:23 PM
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littlebonelady.bsky.social
Seeing the old year out in the company of Bonnie and Caer Caradoc - may 2026 bring more of this sort of thing. #HillfortsWednesday #hillfort #Shropshire
A panorama of rolling green hills under a brilliant blue sky, under a low winter sun. A gobby black-and-white collie-cross who we all love anyway is in the distant foreground, staring into the camera like the queen she is.
December 31, 2025 at 6:03 PM
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moleymole.bsky.social
Who knew 𝐈 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐒 had a drink problem?
December 31, 2025 at 5:32 PM
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
For the last #HillfortsWednesday of 2025, here's the trivallate Iron Age marvel of Badbury Rings #Dorset

✈️ 📷 summer 1947 @camdiglib.bsky.social (CC BY-NC 3.0) with uncontrolled access causing major erosion

Now better managed by the @nattrustarch.bsky.social, Badbury is a great place to explore 😍
An aerial view of a grass covered Iron Age hillfort, trees filling the interior, multiple paths exposing the white chalk geological natural beneath, the while being surrounded by hedge field boundaries
December 31, 2025 at 8:12 AM
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romanpalace.bsky.social
Actually we know it's Wednesday, because our feed is gummed up with Hillforts. 🙄
#HillfortsWednesday.
December 31, 2025 at 3:38 PM
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archaeohawke.bsky.social
#HillfortsWednesday

Brent Tor -  Iron Age earthworks & remnants of a Hill fort. Unusually, the fortifications are at the base of the Tor.The northern ramparts in particular are well preserved, displaying a multi-vallate pattern characteristic of the Iron-A, or early -B, culture.
Brent Tor is one of the most impressive rock outcrops in Dartmoor. With St Michael’s Church at its top, it makes a distinctive and famous silhouette on the Dartmoor skyline. The tor is unusual as it is one of the few on Dartmoor not to be made of granite. In fact, it is formed from basaltic lava which flowed some 350 million years ago into a shallow sea that covered the area during the Lower Carboniferous and Devonian periods. As the lavas flowed out into the sea some solidified into globular masses known as pillow lavas. Others were broken up by explosive contact with the sea water. This lava formed a mound on the sea floor which was then eroded by sea currents with the resulting debris being washed down the slopes of the mound. Debris of this nature can still be seen loose on the southern slopes of the tor. There are many legends surrounding Brent Tor. One of the best-known is that of the Merchant and the Storm. According to this story, an early medieval merchant paid for the church to be completed after nearly being shipwrecked.[7][8] The churchyard was used as a location in filming the ITV version of Jamaica Inn Around the Tor are Iron Age earthworks, the remnants of a Hill fort. Unusually, the fortifications are at the base of the Tor, rather than the summit as is more normal (compare with Brent Knoll in Somerset). No archaeological work has been carried out on the site. However, the northern ramparts in particular are well preserved, displaying a multi-vallate pattern characteristic of the Iron-A, or early -B, culture. There are three distinct consecutive ramparts in this sector, and traces of internal partitioning.
December 31, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
To end the year, here's some fabulous #ArchaeologyNews for #HillfortsWednesday - Ireland's largest hillfort!

Occupied from 1200-400 BC, with over 600 houses found so far, it's even larger than Maiden Castle!

🎆 See you all in 2026! 🎆

#archaeology #news

🏺 phys.org/news/2025-12...
Scientists have uncovered evidence of Ireland's largest prehistoric hillfort settlement
In a recent study published in Antiquity, Dr. Dirk Brandherm and his colleagues identified more than 600 suspected house platforms in the Brusselstown Ring hillfort, making it the largest nucleated se...
phys.org
December 31, 2025 at 1:25 PM
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hillfortian.bsky.social
For the last #HillfortsWednesday of 2025, I'll offer one of the first hillforts I visited (outside my patch) this year. Castle Oe'er, Scotland which was, despite my Carry On jokes, a brilliant visit.

NB:I've just realised I can site my hundreds of rampart pics to the location via Google Photos!
December 31, 2025 at 1:42 PM
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Can't wait 😊👍
megsdigs.bsky.social Meg Russell @megsdigs.bsky.social · 3d
#diggingforbritain Series 13 here we come! First episode on BBC2 and iPlayer on Jan 7th 9pm✨
December 31, 2025 at 12:23 PM
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jessstilllife.bsky.social
Neither a hill nor a fort for the final #HillfortWednesday of the year, more of an Iron Age house on a mountain. Still fascinating and beautifully constructed, though you might want to be shorter than 5’6” 🤕
Laid Wheelhouse, near Loch Eriboll, Sutherland
An Iron Age stone built wheel house, so called because of its internal structure with internal spaces designed around spoke shaped lintels
December 31, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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magiclantern.bsky.social
This should have been #HillfortsWednesday (plural)
magiclantern.bsky.social James_AL_Downs @magiclantern.bsky.social · 2d
Today's obviously the last #HillfortWednesday of the year, so here's a couple of pics from yesterday's walk around the impressive Iron Age earthworks of Woodbury Castle
Photo of water lying in the ditch at the base of a tall earthen wall, with trees reflected on the water surface Photo of the gap between inner and outer earth walls of an old hillfort, filled with fallen leaves, with trees all around and some ivy Photo of an opening in a large earthen wall, viewed through trees Photo of the gap between inner and outer earth walls of an old hillfort, filled with fallen leaves, with a tree trunk in the foreground
December 31, 2025 at 11:58 AM
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jnknssj.bsky.social
"Ruborough Camp, Broomfield, looking towards Bridgwater Bay" from Ancient Earthworks & Camps of Somerset (Edward J. Burrow, 1924). #HillfortsWednesday #Archaeology #Prehistory #Watercolour #Monochrome #BlackAndWhite #BridgwaterBay #Somerset
Monochrome watercolour depicting, in the foreground, two earthen ramparts, separated by a ditch, running away from the viewer. The leftmost rampart is topped by a wooden fence comprising a row of posts linked by a single line of rails. In the left and central middle distance is a partly wooded hill, while flatter terrain occupies the right of frame. In the far distance may be glimpsed the Bristol Channel and the hills of South Wales.
December 31, 2025 at 10:40 AM
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druidtombraider.bsky.social
Dunsinane Hill with the Iron Age earthworks of its hillfort, which far antedate Macbeth, visible in the middle distance. Picture: Peter Ward. #HillfortsWednesday
December 31, 2025 at 11:33 AM
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romanpalace.bsky.social
Here are the New Year's resolutions we plan to break in the next week or so:

Be nicer to #CuratorRob 🙄
Post about Fishbourne Roman Palace from time to time 🫡
Fewer typos 😳
Get over the whole "Villa" thing 🧐
Get engaged (we're looking at you, Merchy) 😍
December 31, 2025 at 10:36 AM
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hillfortian.bsky.social
Something exciting is happening- In support of keeping the Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership afloat (DEFRA monies only go so far), I have been encouraged to launch a lecture series.

(and yes, I asked Sir Baz sometime ago about basing this on his book, so I haven't just nicked the title😅)
BRITAIN: THE BEGINNING A 6-part online lecture series Six weekly live online sessions via Microsoft Teams, each 2 hours with space for interactive discussion and Q&A. When: Every Tuesday starting 17 February, final lecture on 24 March. 7.30pm £90 per person (Early bird special - buy before 2026 and pay £75) Discover the story of Britain’s ancient past through a series of lectures. Join Dr Wendy Morrison for an engaging exploration of the human story of landscape, from the earliest inhabitants through to the end of the Roman period. Drawing on decades of teaching and fieldwork experience, Dr Morrison will guide you through the archaeological discoveries that have transformed our understanding of life on these islands across millennia. From the first hunter-gatherers returning after the last Ice Age, to the first farming communities, from Iron Age hillforts to Romano-British villas, each 2-hour session combines historic and recent scholarship with a flowing narrative to build up a picture of the past. Please note: this is a non-accredited course designed for personal enrichment and learning
December 8, 2025 at 4:22 PM