Monument record MDO3243 - Maiden Castle Neolithic Enclosure, Winterborne St Martin

Visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork bank and pock-marked areas within the Iron Age hillfort. Digitally plotted for the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

The Neolithic enclosure at Maiden Castle occupies only the eastern part of the hill, and has an approximate area of 8 hectares, making it one of the larger examples in England. It is overlain by a large Iron Age hillfort which has restricted investigation of the Neolithic enclosure circuits. Within the ramparts of the hillfort, the west side of the Neolithic enclosure is overlain by the long mound, a 500 metre-long earthwork.

The manufacture of flint axeheads and other large core tools on the site was confirmed. The absence of comparable features from other assemblages from the surrounding area strongly suggests that axehead-making was focused at Maiden Castle, despite the wide availability of suitable raw material. Accounts are given of research on assemblages from causewayed enclosures. The third note is on 'Maiden Castle' where both axe production and flake- and blade-manufacture from local material are in evidence. <3>

The Neolithic enclosure and long mound were not identified until Mortimer Wheeler's excavations of 1934-7; previously investigations were focussed on the Iron Age hillfort remains. Wheeler identified that the earliest phase of the hillfort followed the line of two concentric circuits of causewayed ditch approximately 15 metres apart. The inner ditch contained several episodes of filling and substantial numbers of artfacts. Once the Neolithic ditches were substantially full and a turfline had developed over them, the 500 metre-long mound was built across them. In the long mound ditches were concentrations of cattle bone, including several cattle skulls. There were undated inhumation burials in the area of the long mound, although their relationship to it was unclear. In addition to polished stone and flint axeheads, Neolithic levels yielded much larger numbers of complete and fragmentary flaked flint axeheads, some of them apparently unfinished, and Neolithic pottery.
A new campaign of fieldwork took place in 1985-6, funded by English Heritage. The project entailed landscape survey around the monument as well as detailed earthwork and geophysical survey of the hilltop itself. The earthwork survey emphasised the tripartite character of the long mound, and raised the possibility that a north-east to south-west earthwork running into the west hillfort entrance may originally have been a freestanding cross-ridge dyke. <4>

Subsequent to the 1985-6 project, Paul Martin considered the question of whether Maiden Castle was defended in the Neolithic. Martin remained undecided as to whether the arrows reflected conflict, formed a part of the overall pattern of deposition at the site, or both. <6>

Although known primarily as a hillfort, the Neolithic deposits represent some of the earliest monumental remains in the area. Causewayed enclosures and bank barrows are rare forms of monument nationally and their association at Maiden Castle is one of only two cases to be identified. The Neolithic monuments at Maiden Castle exerted an influence upon the location of monuments to the north: two long barrows were aligned upon the bank barrow, and these later formed foci for Bronze age round barrow cemeteries.

The earliest features to be identified at the site include a group of pits across the hilltop, associated with Early Neolithic flintwork. Environmental evidence suggests that the pits date to around 4000 BC, a time when the hilltop was first cleared of woodland. Soon after this, a causewayed enclosure was constructed on the eastern plateau, enclosing an area of about 8ha. The enclosure was defined by two concentric lines of ditch, constructed as a series of irregular segments situated 14m-15m apart. The inner ditch is 3m-4m wide and was constructed as segments later joined together. The outer ditch is 1.7m-2.4m wide and constructed as segments associated with causeways 5m-6m wide. The enclosure may have contained a long barrow and is associated with two human infant burials. Around 3500 BC, and after the enclosure had fallen out of use, a bank barrow was constructed near to the centre of the hilltop, part of it overlying the western end of the causewayed enclosure. <5>

Recent research into the dating of Neolithic enclosures concluded the following:
The causewayed enclosure at Maiden Castle began to be built probably in the 3550s or 3540s cal BC. The inner circuit was constructed probably in 3560-3540 cal BC. The outer circuit was built probably in 3560-3535 cal BC. The constructions of the two circuits at Maiden Castle are so close in date that it is not possible to determine which was dug first. It is perfectly possible that the two circuits were precisely contemporary, that is, were dug in the same year. It is very probable that they were constructed within 20 years of each other, and almost certain that they were constructed within 40 years of each other. Whatever the order of the construction of the circuits, the enclosure was in place within a single generation. On the basis of the material dated from their fills, the enclosure ditches filled up quickly. Overall, both ditches were filled probably by 3550-3530 cal BC.

The use of the Maiden Castle causewayed enclosure was remarkably short. Overall, the period between the cutting of the first ditch and the final filling of the last ditch lasted probably 1-20 years or the span of a single generation. The inner ditch probably took a few years to fill up, probably 1-20 years. In contrast, it appears that the outer ditch filled up even more quickly, perhaps more quickly than can be reliably estimated by radiocarbon dating. The model estimates that the outer ditch was infilled possibly in less than a year.

The eastern and central parts of the long mound were constructed probably in 3545-3395 cal BC. It is probable that the outer ditch of the causewayed enclosure had been dug and had filled up by the time the long mound was constructed. It is more difficult to estimate the duration of the gap between the disuse of the enclosure and the initiation of the long mound. This can be estimated, however, to have lasted 1-160 years. There was almost certainly a gap between the use of the enclosure and the construction of the dated portion of the long mound.

The Maiden Castle causewayed enclosure was short-lived, in use for 50 years at most. The results suggest that the outer ditch - at least on the eastern side of the enclosure - was dug and filled possibly within as little as a year. The inner ditch probably took at most 35 years to infill, and the succession of `midden' layers would fit this longer estimate. Sharples and others have suggested that the enclosure could be seen as the place for dangerous ritual. Roger Mercer has suggested a context of warfare and conflict. When considering these theories with the new dating evidence indicating a very short timescale, this would indicate the rituals or threats were undertaken and resolved very quickly and without recurrence. The causewayed enclosure at Maiden Castle emerges as a monument built and used rapidly in the 36th century cal BC. <7>

Visible on aerial photographs <8> as an earthwork bank and pock-marked areas within the Iron Age hillfort. Digitally plotted for the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1988, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1987, 124 (Serial). SDO87.

<3> Middleton, B, Brown, A, Edmonds, and Bellamy, P, 1989, Lithics in Early Neolithic Enclosures. Lithics 10, 44-51 (Article in serial). SDO20414.

<4> Sharples, N M, 1991, Maiden Castle Excavations and field survey 1985-6 (Monograph). SDO10017.

<5> English Heritage, Scheduled Monument Notification, 09-OCT-1981, revised 24-SEP-1997 (Scheduling record). SDO17381.

<6> Martin, Paul, 2001, Was Maiden Castle defended in the Neolithic? (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Bournemouth) (Unpublished document). SDO20413.

<7> Whittle, Alasdair, Bayliss, Alex, and Healy, Frances, 2011, Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland, 164-192 (Monograph). SDO20412.

<8> National Monuments Record, 06-DEC-1984, NMR SY6788/93 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11812.

<9> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 615760 (Index). SDO14738.

Wheeler, R E M: Maiden Castle, Dorset. A collection of 612 copied photographs relating to excavations at Maiden Castle by the Society of Antiquaries from 1934 to 1938. A number of the photographs were used in the collection were used in the report but many remain unpublished. The collection also contains photographs of other Dorset sites: Waddon Hill; Maumbury Rings; Fordington Down; Fordington Down and Dorchester City Wall, West Walk.Condition : SATISFACTORYBibliographic Reference: 1) 1943, Number XII: Maiden Castle, Dorset

<10> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 897996 (Index). SDO14738.

Gee, E. A.: Maiden Castle. The photograph album also contains photographs of excavations at Colliton Park, Dorchester in 1937. Photographs associated with this collection catalogued under Collection Number 889006Condition : SATISFACTORY

<11> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AF0832712 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Maiden Castle, Dorset. RCHME Salisbury was requested by English Heritage in 1984 to carry out a resurvey of the Iron Age hillfort as part of its proposed programme of excavation and conservation. The survey was conducted in 1985.Contents : 10 plans, overlay, contour survey, report, research material, geophysical survey reportCondition : INTACT

<12> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AF1322513 (Index). SDO14738.

EH: Maiden Castle, Dorset. Contents : 7 prints

<13> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1537734 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 23 2025 12:59PM