Cadbury Castle, Somerset

It was already recognized before excavation began that Cadbury Castle ran from the neolithic to the early 11th century AD. This illustrated report is concerned with only part of the overall time-span - the early medieval period. From the 5th and 6th centuries, at a time of considerable political upheaval, with emergent Celtic kingdoms contending over the ruins of Roman Britain, and Anglo-Saxon settlers advancing into the Upper Thames valley, the derelict Cadbury hill-fort was reoccupied and refortified. In the 11th century, Cadbury was used to protect Ethelred and his son Edmund in the face of Viking ravaging and ultimate conquest. The book provides a descriptive account of the structural remains from this period uncovered in the excavations; a catalogue of the artefacts recovered; and an attempt to set the early medieval archaeology in wider historical contexts. Leslie Alcock has also written "Arthur's Britain".