A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill, consisting of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches. Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC, and were in use in many Celtic areas of central and western Europe until the Roman conquest.
Read more about Hill Fort: Nomenclature, Chronology, Historiography, Types of Hill Fort
Famous quotes containing the words hill and/or fort:
“The fact that Romans once inhabited her reflects no little dignity on Nature herself; that from some particular hill the Roman once looked out on the sea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To die, to be really dead, that must be glorious.... There are far worse things awaiting man than death.”
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)