Harding et al./Enclosing the Past, 8. Defining Community: Iron, Boundaries and Transformation

This paper explores enclosed settlements during the later prehistoric period in Britain, with a particular emphasis on the Middle Iron Age, addressing the nature of the acts by which ironwork hoards were incorporated within boundary earthworks on a number of sites. It is argued that these acts may have been related to the definition (or re-definition) of a physical boundary, a barrier that was imbued with a sense of history or a time depth. By constructing physical boundaries, people were seeking to define the character of their communities.