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![]() Little Wittenham, Berkshire The tree-covered heights of the Iron Age Hillfort on Sinodun (or Castle) Hill and its twin, both in Little Wittenham, are a well-known beauty spot known variously as Wittenham Clumps, the Berkshire Bubs or Mother Dunch's Buttocks! The name Sinodun is pure Celtic. Seno-Dunum means 'Old Fort'. This may indicate it was abandoned quite some time before the Romans arrived in Berkshire or, more likely, that it was so-named in the post-Roman period, before the Saxons arrived. Excavations have shown that a
late Bronze Age sub-circular enclosure surrounded the first hectare of
settlement on the site. It had a 2.5m deep U-shaped ditch and associated
bank, possibly with a palisade on top. The early Iron Age saw the building
of the banks and 7.5m deep V-shaped ditches forming the hillfort of today.
There was a rampart with both timber palisades and revetment. No round
houses have been discovered so far, but the inhabitants, who were largely
resident in the middle Iron Age, are known to have eaten fish from Thames
and wild boar from the woods, whilst farming some cattle, but mostly sheep.
Barley and some wheat was grown in the surrounding fields and stored here in
huge pits. Other activities in evidence include sewing (with bone needles)
and spinning (with spindle whorls). Unusually for the Iron Age, a number of
burials were discovered - one in a grave, the others in pits. The most
significant consisted of a large male buried in the foetal position at the
bottom of a pit, a charred grain deposit at his feet and joints of meat
under his arm. After a covering of earth, the better part of a dismembered
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