Fin Cop

Fin Cop is a hill and an associated Iron Age hill fort in Monsal Dale, close to Ashford in the Water in Derbyshire, England [1]. The fort shows evidence of hurried construction, indicating a defensive response to a real threat, rather than the more usual assumption that such forts were a display of status and prestige [1]. In 2011 excavations unearthed a mass burial containing only women and children, probably massacred after the fort was attacked, the first such segregated burial in Iron Age Britain [1]. Some animal bones were also found, suggesting the inhabitants kept livestock [1]. The remains were relatively well preserved due to the limestone geology of the hill [1]. Carbon dating of the site suggests it was constructed between 440BC and 390BC [1].