Milber Down Fort
Plan: J.C. Wall in Ancient Earthworks (1906)
Database entries
PDW coverage: Dartmoor Resource: Table of Devon Iron Age Forts
OS Map: SX 88440 69840
OS Source: Google
HER: MDV8649
Megalithic Portal: 4629
Alternate name: Milber Down
Short Name: FT:Milber Down
Exist: Yes
Record: Unique
Record Source: Fox
Hut Class: No
Lidar: SX 88440 69840
Nearby sites: SX 88440 69840
Notes
HER: Milber Down hillfort is an Iron Age multivallate hill-slope fort, consisting of four roughly concentric and fairly widely spaced ramparts with outer ditches.
Fox(1952): A single entrance exists through the outer rampart on the north-west side; the road which bisects the camp has destroyed the other entrances. The outer defences had suffered somewhat through ploughing, tree planting and felling, and gravel digging. The site was excavated in 1937-8; a continuous trench cut through the three main ramparts and ditches of the west side of the camp showed the ramparts to be all of one period, of simple construction and without revetments. The middle ditch, shallower than the other v-shaped ditches, had a mass of Iron Age pottery (Glastonbury ware, 'B' ware) at the bottom, dating to the 1st century BC. At a higher level, the filling yielded a group of small bronze figurines, probably Gallo-Roman work of 1st century AD. A gully on the east side of the site between the second bank and inner ditch into which it drained, produced much occupation material including 'B' ware pottery. No structural evidence was found within, although pottery and charcoal occurred in some of the trial trenches. The site was considered to have been peacefully abandoned, possibly at the time of the Roman conquest.
References
These are selected references with an emphasis on out of copyright sources linked as PDFs. For more detailed references try any linked HER or PMD record above.
- Fox, Aileen, Hill-Slope Forts and Related Earthworks in South-West England and South Wales, Archaeological Journal Vol 109 (1952)
- Fox, Aileen, Prehistoric hillforts in Devon, (1996)
- Hutchinson, P. O., On the Hill Fortresses, Tumuli, and some other Antiquities of Eastern Devon, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol.18 pp.53-66 (1862)
- Wall, J. Charles, Ancient Earthworks, The Victoria History of the County of Devon: v. 1 pp.573-630 (1906)