ABSTRACT
This chapter explores wider themes in relation to what may be contentiously termed public spaces, and focuses primarily on hillforts with broader discussion of proto-urban centres, with the analysis of their creation, modification and demise. It focuses on sacred sites, some of which were located hillforts and settlements, but also include isolated shrines and natural places. The act of physically breaking a monument creates something new. The toppled statues of despotic leaders have themselves become iconic following the initial act of destruction, emphasised for the global media through photographic representation and reproduction. The symbolic meanings of monuments are numerous, and might variously relate to power, control or religion, which is the basis for why there is a rich tradition of iconoclastic action targeted against them. One of the most clearly defined types of iconoclasm has taken place within what might be termed public spaces although, in practice, such spaces are not always strictly public.
