Segsbury Camp facts for kids
Segsbury Camp, also known as Segsbury Castle or Letcombe Castle, is an ancient Iron Age hill fort. It sits high up on the Berkshire Downs in Oxfordshire, England. This historic site is near The Ridgeway, a famous ancient path, and the town of Wantage. It's located in the Letcombe Regis area.
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What is Segsbury Camp?
Segsbury Camp is a type of ancient fortress built on a hill. People in the Iron Age used these forts for protection and as important community centers. This camp has very large ditches and tall earth walls, called ramparts, which were built to defend it. It also had four main entrances.
Discoveries at Segsbury Camp
Archaeologists have explored Segsbury Camp to learn more about its past.
Early Excavations
In 1871, a doctor named Phené dug at the site. He found a special grave, called a cist grave, on the south side of the fort's rampart. This grave was made with stone slabs on the floor and flint stones for the walls. Inside, he discovered some interesting items. These included a shield boss (the metal part in the middle of a shield) and pieces of a pot or drinking cup. He also found human bones and flint tools, which are sharp stones used by ancient people. Some experts think this grave might have been a later burial from the Anglo-Saxons period, placed within the older Iron Age camp.
Later Investigations
More digging happened at Segsbury Camp in 1996 and 1997. The reports from this work tell us that people lived at the hill fort off and on between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC. This means it was used for many hundreds of years! The findings suggest that Segsbury Camp was a busy place. It was likely a meeting point for different groups of people. They might have used it for various activities, including managing sheep and trading goods with each other.
Where is Segsbury Camp?
Segsbury Camp is located at a specific spot on maps, known as Ordnance Survey grid reference SU385845.
