Adam Stout’s ‘Art Deco Archaeology’ in CA 238, showed how Mortimer Wheeler’s interpretation of Maiden Castle shifted against the background of Nazi war preparations, leading to the view that has stuck firmly in many minds that hillforts are a defensive response to tribal warfare and the threat from Rome.

Ian Brown’s book firmly rejects this idea. To argue that hillforts were primarily built with martial intent misses evidence pointing to other factors, he says, and much of the book is taken up with explaining the many different functions served by hillforts over the thousand years in which the monument type can be traced. Like Medieval castles, they could be symbols of status and prestige, they could control key resources and transport routes, they could be markets, habitations, storage silos and cult centres.

Echoing Barry Cunliffe’s dictim that ‘there may be no such thing as a typical hillfort’, he says ‘one fact above all others stands out – their great variability’. As a guide to their many different forms and functions, this is a very thorough, well-written and well-illustrated book.

Reprinted with permission by www.archaeology.co.uk