From Bronze Age Enclosure to Anglo-Saxon Settlement: Archaeological Excavations at Taplow Hillfort, Buckinghamshire, 1999-2005

Excavations at Taplow Court in advance of the construction of a Conference Hall for Soka Gakkai UK unexpectedly revealed three successive defensive ditches spanning the later Bronze and Iron Ages, evidence for a vanished hillfort on the edge of the escarpment, overlooking the river Thames and dominating the valley below. The Bronze Age origins of the defences, which included palisades, ditches and multiple post-rows, the unusual preservation of the Early Iron Age rampart, whose timber-lacing was partly preserved by fire, and the later development of multiple lines of defence, are matched at few other sites in the Thames Valley.
Supported by a grant from English Heritage, this volume describes and discusses these regionally important discoveries. The later prehistoric defences are put into context by earlier Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age finds from the site, the last providing rare evidence of domestic activity from this period. The hillfort defences were still visible in Anglo-Saxon times, when domestic rubbish, including sherds of amphora traded from the Mediterranean, was thrown into the open ditches, crops were processed and burials were made. The ancient defences may have influenced the choice of location for the well-known princely burial within the Taplow Mound, and thereafter Anglo-Saxon activity continued for several centuries before the site was levelled in the medieval period.