Mellor hill fort

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Mellor hill fort
File:MellorReplicaRoundhouse.jpg
Replica roundhouse at Mellor
Mellor hill fort is located in Greater Manchester
Mellor hill fort
Location within Greater Manchester
General information
Architectural styleIron Age
Town or cityMellor, Greater Manchester
CountryEngland
Technical details
Sizec. 1 ha (2.5 acres) (inner enclosure)[1]

Mellor hill fort is a settlement dating from the Iron Age. Situated on a hill in Mellor, Greater Manchester, on the western edge of the Peak District, the hill fort overlooks the Cheshire Plain. There is evidence of activity on the site before the hill fort was built in the Iron Age, going as far back as 8,000 BC. In the Bronze Age, the hill may have been used as an area where funerary practices were performed. The settlement was founded in the Iron Age and continued to be used into the Roman period. Artefacts from the site indicate it was high status and took part in long distance trade. After the site was abandoned, probably in the 4th century, it was not rediscovered until the 1990s.

Location

Mellor lies on the western edge of the Peak District in Northwest England. At grid reference SJ9820088929,[2] the known site of the Iron Age settlement in Mellor is partially under St Thomas Church and extends into the gardens of several nearby houses. It is on a spur about 220 metres (720 ft) above sea level, between two valleys which drop steeply away and run west towards a confluence with the River Goyt approximately 100 metres (330 ft) above sea level. The site commands views of the Cheshire Plain and Alderley Edge to the south and the range of hills to the north.[3] Although there are higher points locally, the site has access to a water supply and the river valleys, and there is flat land to the west which could have been used agriculturally.[4]

Background

Until the 19th century very little was known about hill forts, as none had been excavated and their original purpose had been long forgotten. In the medieval period, their origin was ascribe to various iconic figures such as Julius Caesar, King Arthur, King Alfred, the Danes, and even giants. By the 18th century, it was widely accepted that hill forts were Roman in origin.[5] Opinion changed again in the 19th century following a large scale investigation by Augustus Pitt-Rivers, from which he concluded that hill forts were built in the Iron Age.[6]

Although the study of hill forts was popular in the 19th century and there was a revival in the 20th century due to excavations at Danebury,[7] it wasn't until the 1998 that it was recognised that there was an Iron Age site at Mellor. This was due to a lack of telltale earthworks such as a circular ditch which would indicate the ancient activity.[8] Prior to the excavations at Mellor – which began in 1998 and are ongoing – little was known about the prehistory of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport after about 1200 BC,[9] and it was thought that the area of Marple and Mellor had been essentially untouched by human activity in prehistory and in the Romano-British period.[10] There is little known about the Iron Age in North West England as pottery is rare on the sites excavated in the region and there are few Iron; there is a lack of settlement sites and compared to the over 1,300 hill forts in England,[11] there is a relatively low number in the north west. This has lead archaeologist Colin Haselgrove to describe the region as a "black hole" for the Iron Age.[12] Mellor is the only hill fort in Greater Manchester.

History

File:MellorFlintDagger.jpg
Bronze Age flint dagger measuring about 12 cm (5 in) in length.[13]

There is evidence of human activity on the site of the hill fort which pre-dates the Iron Age, going back as far as 8,000–6,000 BC. In this period, Mellor was probably used as a knap site where flint tools were produced, or perhaps a camp which would have been inhabited seasonally. Over 200 lithics have been recovered and range from the early to the late Mesolithic. A high proportion of the flints are bladed tools, indicating that the people who produced them were hunter gatherers.[8] Bronze Age artefacts are a rarer occurrence on the site, and there is no definite indication of habitation in this period. Despite this, it is likely that the long term habitation of the site had its roots in the late Bronze Age.[8]

A flint dagger was discovered on the site; the type of artefact is rare in Greater Manchester and the nearest comparable site is in Saddleworth. Its presence has been taken as an indication that the site was used for funerary practices in the Bronze Age. Many of the hills near Mellor are surmounted by Bronze Age funerary monuments such as Brown Low, Shaw Cairn, and Werneth Low, supporting the possibility that Mellor was also a funerary site.[14]

The hill fort was built in and used throughout the Iron Age as evidenced by finds from the site spanning the period.[15] Habitation of the site was repeated and spread over a long period and the people lived in roundhouses. In common with many other hill forts, the site was probably divided into separate areas for habitation, industry, and agriculture-related activities such as storage, although the layout of these areas changed over time.[16] Excavations indicate that the area enclosed by the inner ditch was used mainly for habitation, while the area between the inner and outer ditches was agricultural; however, the separation was not necessarily concrete as some of the outer area shows signs that it was used as a living space. The Roman fort of Melandra is nearby.[17]

Fragments of glass, possibly Roman in origin, and shards of pottery which date to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD indicate the site was used in the Romano-British period.[15] Despite this, no Roman structures have been uncovered, and the nature of the Roman activity is a source for speculation. The nature of the hilltop would make it a good place to defend, however the finds indicate there was a high-status settlement rather than a military outpost, unless it was located elsewhere on the hill. One of the reasons that Roman structures have not been identified is that the Romano-British inhabitants may have used roundhouses rather than buildings in a typically rectilinear Roman style. This would make them harder to identify from Iron Age roundhouses and would imply a continuation of local culture rather than an imposition of Roman values. It is also possible that rather than Roman's living on the site, they merely influenced the area.[18][19] The site was later abandoned and slipped from memory until it was rediscovered in the 1990s.

Investigation

With sites such as Danebury where there is no modern habitation or built environment, it is possible to undertake extensive excavations and establish the general layout; however, the modern settlement of Mellor extends over the Iron Age hill fort and hinders archaeological activity. A geophysical survey was performed to establish the extent of the settlement; methods such as magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar were successful in identifying the eastern and northern sections of the ditch encircling the site. Excavations have been concentrated around the Old Vicarage and by 2004 there were 43 trenches, 14 trial trenches, and 17 test pits.[8] The investigation of the site has revealed that there were two ditches, and while the external ditch encloses a larger area it has smaller dimensions than the internal ditch.

The chronological relation between the two ditches is uncertain.[20] The internal ditch has been cut into the sandstone bedrock and is 4 m (13 ft) wide and 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) deep; there was a palisade 3.25 m (11 ft) beyond the inner edge of the ditch. At some point, part of the ditch was refilled and a posthole inserted into it, possibly relating to a gateway. Artefacts recovered from the ditch indicate that the inhabitants of the site had links with salt producing communities in lowland Cheshire. The Very Coarse Pottery (VCP) which was used to contain the salt at Mellor is similar to fragments recovered from the Iron Age site at Beeston Castle. A layer of charcoal has been radiocarbon dated to 830–190 BC. [15] The latest deposits in the ditch include hundreds of fragments of Roman pottery dating from the 1st to 4th centuries, bronze Roman brooches, and Roman nails.[21]

The outer ditch is 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) wide and 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) deep, and like the inner ditch was cut in the local bedrock.[22] A rare Iron Age pot was recovered from the outer ditch, with 125 shards found. [23][24] The material used to make to pot originated about 15 to 20 km (9 to 12 mi) away in Castleton, Derbyshire. The pot was found in one of the earliest contexts in the ditch and dates to the Iron Age. It was probably deliberately placed at the bottom of the ditch as part of a ritual after a significant event such as digging the ditch.[24] While the inner ditch did have a palisade, neither ditch had a bank associated with it.[24]

The archaeological excavations that have been undertaken since 1998 have been funded by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and have received news coverage. The site has been used as a training excavation for students and a community dig with the participation of Mellor Archaeological Trust to introduce people to history.[9] Many of the artefacts discovered at Mellor during the excavations are on on permanent display at Stockport Museum.[25]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 50.
  2. ^ Monument no. 1344612, Pastscape, retrieved 8 May 2009
  3. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 11.
  4. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 18.
  5. ^ Cunliffe (1983), p. 11.
  6. ^ Cunliffe (1983), pp. 12–13.
  7. ^ Cunliffe (1983), p. 12.
  8. ^ a b c d Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 20.
  9. ^ a b Nevell & Redhdead (2005), p. 49.
  10. ^ The story of the site, Mellor Archaeological Trust, retrieved 16 May 2009
  11. ^ Forde-Johnston (1962), pp. 13–14.
  12. ^ Hodgson & Brennand (2006), p. 51.
  13. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 61.
  14. ^ The possibility of it being a stray find is unlikely as it is a high status object. Nevell & Redhead (2005), pp. 21–22.
  15. ^ a b c Nevell & Redhead (2005), pp. 23–24.
  16. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), pp. 29–30.
  17. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), pp. 32–33.
  18. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 33.
  19. ^ Newman (2006), p. 74.
  20. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 22.
  21. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 24.
  22. ^ Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 25.
  23. ^ Newman (2006), p. 56.
  24. ^ a b c Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 26.
  25. ^ Nevell & Redhdea (2005), p. 52.
Bibliography
  • Cunliffe, Barry (1983), Danebury: Anatomy of an Iron Age Hillfort, Batsford Ltd, ISBN 0713409983
  • Forde-Johnston, James (1962), "The Iron Age Hillforts of Lancashire and Cheshire", Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 72: 9–46
  • Hodgson, John; Brennand, Mark (2006), Brennand, Mark (ed.), "The Prehistoric Period Resource Assessment", Archaeology North West, 8: 23–58, ISSN 0962-4201
  • Nevell, Mike and Redhead, Norman: editors (2005), Mellor: Living on the Edge. A Regional Study of an Iron Age and Romano-British Upland Settlement, University of Manchester Archaeological Unit, Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit, and the Mellor Archaeological Trust, ISBN 0-9527813-6-0 {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Newman, Caron (2006), "The Medieval Period Resource Assessment", Archaeology North West, 8: 115–144, ISSN 0962-4201

External links

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