Hillforts in Britain - Early Mediaeval Hillforts

Early Mediaeval Hillforts

In the Early Mediaeval period, which began in the fifth century CE, much of southern Britain (comprising much of the area that later became the nation-state of England), adopted a variant of Germanic culture from continental Europe, likely due to migration from that region. These Germanic peoples, the Anglo-Saxons, typically did not build or re-use hillforts. However, in Northern and Western Britain, areas that retained a cultural link to the earlier Iron Age, hillfort use continued.

After looking at the difference between Iron Age and Early Medieval hill forts, archaeologist Leslie Alcock thought it reasonable to infer that Political and social conditions that demanded the massive pre-Roman Iron Age hillforts—and had the labour to build them—no longer existed in . This implies a remarkable change in social organization.