1: Our Day at Ham Hill hill fort

On 6th September I went to the Ham Hill Heritage Trail to find out more about the Iron Age Britons and how they fought the Romans.  It was a brilliant day out.  Mum and my sister Charlotte came too.

First we were given a sheet that helped us complete all the questions for the Ham Hill Heritage Trail.  We met real Ancient Britons who were living on Ham Hill.  They showed us how to fight the Romans and the children went into the arena to fight the Ancient Britons.

Here are some great pictures of me learning how to fight the Romans.

After I went in the arena I went to the training school on the other side of the arena.  There was javelin throwing, spear jabbing on shields and sword training.  Then we went back into the arena to do our final lesson of fighting.

I am now an Iron Age Warrior!

This is us in battle!

This is a celt fighting for the Romans.

1: The Romans are Coming!

The Celtic age stopped because of the Romans invading Britain in AD43.  They took over all of the hill forts in England.  They fought many battles in Somerset.  The Roman Army was led by Julius Caesar and he became a Roman Emperor.  The Roman Army was very organised. They had very well made weapons like swords, spears, catapults and ballistars that fired very big arrows.

The Roman soldiers wore metal armour on their shoulders and head.  Their shields were very big.  Most of the Roman soldiers had spears.

This is a Roman Ballister

The Romans had a special way of protection in a battle called the tortoise or testudo!  Here are two pictures.

The Romans attacked the Iron Age Britons at Ham Hill, but the Britons could see them coming because of the Romans shiny helmets shining in the sun.  The Romans always beat the Celts.  They didnt stand a chance!

We went to Ham Hill Heritage Trail to find out more about the Ancient Britons and the Romans.  Read my next post to find out how we got on.

1: Iron Age Britain

Iron Age Britain was from about 800 BC to 43 AD.  The Celtic tribes had their own hill forts with walls made of wood and stone and then carved into hills.  They had houses inside the hill forts that were round houses.  Each tribe had a chief.  The different villages in the tribe also had important men that heard peoples problems and then they took them to the important man in the other village.  If they couldn't agree they would fight to the death.  These important men were called Big Men.

This is a picture of Ham Hill hill fort today.

There was a lot of battles between tribes and a lot of fighting.

Iron Age warriors wore a kind of tartan and they looked really fierce.  Their shields were all different in many kinds of ways.

 The tribe in South Somerset were called the Durotriges.  There were lots of tribes in Iron Age Britain.

But why did the Iron Age end in 43 AD?  Read my next blog post to find out.