Last updated: 10th november  2008 (R.Tabor)

In February 1995 a small team from the South Somerset Archaeological and Historical Society directed by Richard Tabor opened eight small trial trenches on a tongue of land below the west access to the hillfort, prompted by the discovery of prehistoric pottery revealed by the plough  and the apparent disturbance of the subsoil. Just one of the trenches revealed a possible posthole and a handful of sherds but it was enough for Tabor to decide to launch a large scale training excavation just three months later. The area never extended beyond a space with a maximum width of 30m and height of 21m yet the dig turned into a five year campaign full of remarkable discoveries.

The discoveries included an Early Neolithic encampment, including a floor and pits; an Early Bronze Age burial aligned on Glastonbury Tor; A Middle Bronze Age enclosure, part of a larger field system, which included a long sequence of ritual deposits, culminating in the ‘killing’ of  a bronze shield, already over 150 uears old when it was deposited in around 950 BC; a continuous sequence of Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age buildings, ending with the slaughter at Cadbury Castle at around the time of the Roman invasion of AD 43.

Prompted by results of fieldwalking and, particularly, the geophysical survey instigated by Paul Johnson, Peter Leach directed the first of two University of Birmingham training excavations targetting Romano-British structures. The results amplified Roger Leech’s work in the 1970s around Somerton.. However, it was the excavations of the first confirmed metalworking building and enclosure in Britain (2000, 2002 and 2005) and the discovery of a massive Middle to Late Iron Age pit group associated with a sequence of enclosures (2003-05) which is of major importance.

In the Autumn 2005 geopohysical survey revealed a henge-like circular feature. However, test pits and then a full scale excavation the following year, proved that it was a Late Bronze Age or Earliest Iron Age ringwork of a type only found in the East of England, particularly in the Thames Valley. They are associated with  major economic expansion during that period, and were thought to demonstrate the economic pre-eminence of south east England. This discovery is forcing a re-assessment. The ringwork was reused to enclosure an unusual stone-based building in the Iron Age.

Early Neolithic pit,

Milsoms Corner

Bronze Age shield,

Milsoms Corner

Ritual scoop

Milsoms Corner

Finds from metalworking enclosure, Sigwells

Finds from Late Bronze Age ringwork, Sheep Slait

Cattle skull in Iron Age pit, Sigwells

Ringwork entrance ditch terminal, Sheep Slait

Iron Age building within the ringwork, Sheep Slait

Fieldwork