Monument record 0632101002 - Taplow Hillfort: Palisade

Following evaluation trial trenching by Wessex Archaeology, Oxofrd Archaeology were commissioned to undertake a wider investigation in 1999. A parallel line of postholes flanking A N-S palisade trench 0.5m wide and 0.9m deep, containing post impressions 0.26m in diameter and spaced 0.2m-0.3m apart, was found running across the excavated area with a line of post-holes 0.75m to the west. The postholes were 0.4m in diameter and spaced at about 2.5m intervals. The post-alignment was probably associated with the palisade and may represent the enclosure defining a Late Bronze Age settlement pre-dating the Bronze Age hillfort defences (B1).
Two post-hole rows seem to have pre-dated the palisade, running parallel to it on either side of it. The post-holes on the eastern side (1107) were closely spaced, about 0.95m apart. Those on the western side (1108) were much further apart, at about 3.1m. It is thought that these two post-rows were contemporary and created a linked timber rampart, the western row of post-holes possibly supporting a walkway and maybe being put in later. The palisade trench put between these two may have deliberately replaced that. Posts were placed every 0.6m along the trench but it was not possible to say whether the posts were whole trunks or longitudinally split trunks. Concave 'steps' out of the western and eastern edge suggest that planks were placed horizontally either as foundation trenches or as the facing for the front of the palisade (B2).