ABSTRACT
Prehistoric Britain slowly evolved at its own pace, occasionally assimilating ideas, and the people that brought them, from across the Channel. Then in AD 43 the Romans invaded and set about forcibly converting the Celtic king doms into a province of their multinational state. The tangible remains of the Conquest have occasionally been encountered during the excavation of hillforts. The plan seems to have been first to soften the forts up with a bombardment of iron catapult bolts, before the gates were fired and stormed. After the battle was over the defences were slighted to make sure that they could never be manned again. Walls were tumbled down, banks pushed into ditches, timbers of revetments pulled up and gates fired, before the survivors were allowed to bury their dead; though sometimes forts were built inside the old defences.
