- Chapter Five -
Recent work at one of the major forts on the Somme valley, France, has added a
novel dimension to consideration of these sites. The Camp de Cesar at La Chaussee
Tirancourt, from superficial evidence, belongs to Wheeler's series of major forts
defended with Fecamp-specification defences (Wheeler and Richardson 1957)
(Figure 5.10). Recent excavations demonstrate that this is not entirely so (the dump
rampart is in this case fronted by a stone-faced wall tied back to an earlier and smaller
dump which it surmounted), and that the chronological span indicated by compre-
hensive excavations in the elaborate gateway occupies the period between about 40
and 20 Be. On presently available evidence, then, the fort is entirely post-conquest.
Whilst this is, in itself, by no means exceptional, the character of the finds from
the gateway assuredly are. These are strongly dominated by non-local material,
including imported pottery and coins from Provence. The excavators (Brunaux and
Marchand 1990) are confident that the material represents troops in the service of
Rome, probably auxiliaries. Whilst it is recorded that Roman forces were elsewhere
quartered in native forts, La Chaussee Tirancourt appears to have been constructed
ex nihilo by soldiers, perhaps recruited amongst the Volcae Arecomici. If the
construction and use of the other Fecamp-style forts along the Somme valley mirrors
that of La Chaussee Tirancourt, these forts, as Brunaux and Marchand propose, may
represent an early Roman Limes. Their work is, in any case, a salutary reminder of
how excavation evidence can radically alter the standard perception of the defensive
and other significance of seemingly 'classic' iron age hill-forts.
Somewhat over half a century thereafter, in Dorset, the capitulation of the fort
on Hod Hill, marked by some accurate fire-power directed at what may have been
the chieftain's house, was followed by the insertion of a Roman fort of more
conventional appearance into one corner within the slighted hill-fort defences
(Richmond 1968). Rather later, the tumbled defences of an abandoned hill-fort were
used for Roman missile practice, as evidence from Burnswark, Annandale and
Eskdale District, Scotland indicates Gobey 1978). Thus, even for their best-docu-
mented period, the relationships between hill-forts and external aggression demon-
strate considerable variation.
REFERENCES
Alcock, L. (1972) By South Cadbury is that Camelot ... The excavation of Cadbury Castle
1966-70, London: Thames & Hudson.
--(1981) 'Early historic fortifications in Scotland', in G. Guilbert (ed.) Hill-fort Studies,
150-80.
--(1982) 'Cadbury-Camelot: a fifteen-year perspective', Proceedings of the British
Academy 68: 355-88.
--(1987) 'Pictish studies: present and future', in A. Small (ed.) The Picts: a new look at old
problems, Dundee: University of Dundee, 80-92.
Armit, I. (1990) 'Broch building in northern Scotland: the context of innovation', World
Archaeology 21: 435-45.
Audouze, F. and Biichsenschiitz, O.E. (1992) Towns, Villages and Countryside of Celtic
Europe, London: Batsford.
Avery, M. (1976) 'Hillforts of the British Isles: a student's introduction', in D.W. Harding (ed.)
Hillforts, I-58.