page_title: Prehistoric Cumbria
section_title: Iron Age, c. 800 BC–100 AD
hierarchical_section_title: Prehistoric Cumbria / Iron Age, c. 800 BC–100 AD
caption_attribution_description: English: Stony beach, near Swarthy Hill. There is a great variety of beach materials along the Solway coast; here, close to the shore, is a stretch of water-worn rounded rocks, further out is clean sand, a couple of km away is exposed sandstone bedrock.
context_page_description: Prehistoric Cumbria describes that part of north-west England, subsequently the county of Cumbria, prior to the coming of the Romans. Barrowclough puts the archaeological record of the county at '443 stone tools, 187 metal objects and 134 pots', plus the various monuments such as henges, stone circles, and the like. The survival of these objects has been influenced by processes such as the rise in sea levels on the west coast, erosion, deposition practices, industrial and agricultural development, and the changing interests and capabilities of antiquarians and archaeologists.
  The first permanent inhabitants of the Cumbria region were based in caves during the Mesolithic era. The Neolithic saw the construction of monuments and the running of the axe 'factory' from which stone axes were carried around the country. The Bronze Age saw continuity with the Neolithic way of living and Iron Age Cumbria saw the establishment of the Celtic tribes - possibly those called the Carvetii and Setantii by the Romans.
context_section_description: The Iron Age in Britain saw the arrival of Celtic culture - including certain art forms and languages - as well as the obvious increase in the production of iron. The people of Great Britain and Ireland were divided into various tribes: in Cumbria the Carvetii may have dominated most of the county for a time, perhaps being based in the Solway Plain and centred on Carlisle,  although an alternative view has their pre-Roman centre at Clifton Dykes. The Setantii were possibly situated in the south of the county, until both were perhaps incorporated into the Brigantes who occupied much of northern England. (The status - especially that of the relationship with the Brigantes - and location of the Carvetii and Setantii is disputed by historians). They probably spoke Cumbric, a variety of the ancient British language of Brythonic, (or Common Brittonic), the predecessor of modern Welsh, and probably named some of the county's topographical features such as its rivers (e.g. Kent, Eden, Cocker, Levens) and mountains (e.g. Blencathra).
  There appear to be many remains of Iron Age settlement in Cumbria, including hill forts such as those at Maiden Castle  and  Dunmallard Hill and many hundreds of smaller settlements and field systems. However, securely dateable evidence of Iron Age activity in Cumbria is thin. In North Cumbria, hillforts have been dated to c. 500 BC at Carrock Fell and Swarthy Hill, as well as a burial at Rise Hill and a bog body at Scaleby Moss.
  A large number of enclosure sites have been identified from aerial photographs in the Solway Plain. There are also possible sites re-used by the Romans at Bousted Hill and Fingland, as well as at Ewanrigg and Edderside. Early Iron Age finds in West Cumbria are limited to sites at Eskmeals and Seascale Moss (with another bog body). In the south, 'hillforts' have been identified at Skelmore Heads, Castle Head, Warton Crag and an enclosure at Urswick. However, Cumbria appears not to have any of the so-called 'developed hillforts' (enlarged from earlier versions, around 3-7ha in area, with multiple ditches and complex entrances), suggesting that few, if any, were still being used in the pre-Roman Iron Age, apparently having been abandoned.
  The abandonment of land and settlements noted above is probably explained by climate change. Between c. 1250 BC and c. 800 BC, the climate deteriorated to the extent that, in Cumbria, upland areas and marginal areas of cultivation were no longer sustainable. Woodland clearing happened, however, combined with signs of increased soil erosion: production capacity may have been seriously affected, with agriculture being forcibly replaced by pastoralism, and with a resultant "population crisis" at the beginning of the Iron Age.
  However, an improvement in climatic conditions from c. 800 BC to c. 100 AD occurred. A major de-forestation period, linked to increased cereal production, seems to have taken place (according to pollen records) towards the end of the 1st millennium BC. This is also associated with a slight rise in sea level that may explain the lack of evidence for low-lying settlements. There is sparse evidence for the Late Iron Age and early Romano-British periods. Nevertheless, enclosures seen from aerial photography in upland areas such as Crosby Garrett and Crosby Ravensworth, together with similar evidence from the Solway Plain and Eden Valley, (see the section below on Life in Roman Cumbria for a listing of the main sites), point to the populous nature of the territory held by the Brigantes (as noted by Tacitus in the 'Agricola'). The view of historians now seems to be that the hillforts were becoming centres of economic activity and were less in the nature of dominating power-centres. "Indeed, the north-west, far from being a backward region of Britain in the late Iron Age, can be seen as progressive and entrepreneurial."  This was true, however, only in certain areas of the north-west: the Solway Plain, the Eden and Lune valleys, and perhaps southern Cumbria and Cheshire, which may have been "thriving".
  The traditional Iron Age roun
caption: Swarthy Hill, near Crosscanonby on the Solway coast - possible site of Iron Age hillfort, later the site of milefortlet 21 in Roman times
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