Libraries and leisure

Tribes and Chiefdoms: The Iron Age (700BC-AD43)

The adoption of the new technology of iron production took place only gradually, and the earlier part of the Iron Age saw a continuation of the trends begun in the late Bronze Age of increasing population, and of a widespread water cult. There is also a general lack of evidence for formal burial and it is likely that in the Iron Age most dead people were either buried in water or left exposed in the open air.

The early Iron Age is also the time when most hillforts were built and Hertfordshire contains the largest example in eastern England at Ravensburgh Castle, Hexton.

In the late Iron Age Hertfordshire was dramatically transformed from a relative backwater into one of the most important and highly developed areas in Britain. Indeed Hertfordshire is one of the best areas in which to study the late Iron Age in Europe and many of the remains are of international importance.

The principal cause of this transformation was the growing contact between Hertfordshire and the expanding Roman Empire during the 1st century BC, particularly after the expeditions of Julius Caesar to Britain in 55 and 54BC. The Catuvellaunni, who were a powerful Iron Age tribe based in Hertfordshire, increased their influence during the late Iron Age and by the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, they controlled most of South East England.

In about AD 10 an important political centre was established at Verulamium, St Albans, which was probably the residence of a chief of the Catuvellaunni. Several very wealthy late Iron Age burials are known from Hertfordshire including three from the Welwyn area, two from Baldock and a Caluvellunnian ‘royal’ burial from Verulamium, which is one of the most impressive burials known from Celtic Britain and Europe.