Our Legal Heritage, King AEthelbert, 596 to King George III, 1775Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage, King AEthelbert, 596 to King George III, 1775
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Hillforts now had wooden palisades on top of their banks to
protect the enclosed farmsteads and villages from stock wandering
off or being taken by rustlers, and from attacks by wild animals
or other people. Later a rampart was added from which sentries
could patrol. These were supported by timber and/or stone
structures. Timbers were probably transported by carts or dragged
by oxen. At the entrances were several openings only one of which
really allowed entry. The others went between banks into dead ends
and served as traps in which to kill the enemy from above. Gates
were of wood, some hung from hinges on posts which could be
locked. Later guard chambers were added, some with space for
hearths and beds. Sometimes further concentric circles of banks
and ditches, and perhaps a second rampart, were added around these
forts. They could reach to 14 acres. The ramparts are sufficiently
widely spaced to make sling-shotting out from them highly
effective, but to minimize the dangers from sling-shotting from
without. The additional banks and ditches could be used to create
cattle corridors or to protect against spear-thrown firebrands.
However, few forts had springs of water within them, indicating
that attacks on them were probably expected to be short. Attacks
usually began with warriors bristling with weapons and blowing war
trumpets shouting insults to the foe, while their kings dashed
about in chariots. Sometimes champions from each side fought in
single combat. They took the heads of those they killed to
hang from their belts or place on wood spikes at the gates.
Prisoners, including women and children, might become slaves.
Kings sometimes lived in separate palisades where they kept their
horses and chariots.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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