Last updated: 27th May 2008 (R.Tabor)

The project has two classes of narrative objective. The first is based on a sequence of synchronic or system maps derived from the geophysical survey and concerns: (1) the fluctuation of Cadbury Castle’s status as a central place within the wider landscape from the Neolithic to Late Saxon periods; (2) the changing patterns of access and movement in the landscape reflecting shifts in central place; (3) the changing patterns of access which may reveal the prioritising of resource zones defined by topography and ancient soil types.

The second class of narrative is set within a diachronic framework and will explore (1) the apparent increase in settlement nucleation in the Later Bronze Age and Early Iron Age; (2) the manner and extent of the Late Bronze Age pre-hillfort’s influence over the division of the surrounding landscape; (3) the local social and productive conditions in the Iron Age enabling the high input construction and maintenance of a hillfort, as reflected in more intensive subdivision of the landscape. Our work in the core localities will also investigate the rapidity and impact of the Roman occupation on the Cadbury Castle landscape and its population and will explore the processes of change identifiable in the local landscape of the late 4th to 6th centuries which brought about reinvestment in the hillfort.

These narrative objectives are being addressed through: (1) the refinement of the local ceramic fabric chronology or phasing using samples from Cadbury Castle and the project’s excavations to enhance the diagnostic resolution of ploughzone data; (2) the creation of 1:2500 base maps representing each phase or land division system detected comprising geophysical anomalies of a particular alignment or morphological group; (3) chronologically highly resolved, ploughzone artefact distribution maps; (4) maps of ploughzone soil variation; (5) the creation of a Geographical Information Systems resource; (6) assessment of results and devising of an evaluation programme to test the validity of the geophysical interpretations.

All work by the project seeks to establish the extent and quality of the archaeological resource in the survey area, to inform judgement as to how it may best be managed.

Tabor 2002, 8