Hembury

Hembury is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and Iron Age hillfort near Honiton in Devon [1]. Its history stretches from the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC to the Roman invasion [1]. The fort is situated on a south facing promontory at the end of a 240m high ridge in the Blackdown Hills [1]. Originally a Neolithic site, an Iron Age hill fort was later built on the same site [1]. It was excavated between 1930 and 1935 by Dorothy Liddell [1]. She identified a timber framed entrance to the causewayed enclosure and an oval arrangement of postholes in the middle which she interpreted as being a building destroyed by fire before the enclosure earthworks were built [1]. During an excavation in the 1980s headed by Malcolm Todd, archaeological evidence was found on the site of Roman military occupation, suggesting a fort within the existing Iron Age site [1]. The site has given its name to some of the earliest Neolithic pottery in southern Britain after a large collection of pieces of this type of pottery were found during excavations by Dorothy Liddell [1].