Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
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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