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Re: Vitrified Forts
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Nothing is 'wrong' with vitrified forts. Several careful archaeological excavations have shown them to be badly burned examples of stone-walled hillforts which had timber framing incorporated within their cores. Accidental burning at the end of the site's occupation produced the fusing of parts of this rubble core. The dating is slightly controversial but mainly because TL dating for the burning somehow conflicts with the radiocarbon dating for the construction and use of the sites. The finds support the latter time frame (based on C14) and suggest a period of construction in the late Bronze and early Iron Ages, approximately between about the 8th century BC (perhaps earlier in a few cases) and the 3rd.

Timber-framing of Iron Age hillfort stone walls and earthen ramparts is quite widespread in Europe and Britain but in most cases their destruction by fire does not produce vitrification. I suspect that the prevalence of the phenomenon in Scotland is explained by the use there of pure dry rubble in the wall cores, without any earth and other rubbish. In this case, when the fire in the superstructures took hold (accidentally or through enemy attack), and the high wall started to collapse, the already burning and partly carbonised beams became exposed to the wind and started what were in effect small blast furnaces in places, fusing and melting the adjacent rubble.

No example has EVER been found, to my knowledge, of a vitrified wall which was burned at the beginning of the site's use; always it is a destructive fire which wrecks the site.

Hope this helps. Euan MacKie


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Posted by Euan
28th February 2003ce
19:33

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Re: Vitrified Forts (BrigantesNation)

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Re: Vitrified Forts (FourWinds)

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