The Iron Age of south-east Scotland is characterised by densely populated landscapes of hillforts and enclosures. Evidence from Broxmouth, the most completely excavated hillfort in Scotland, shows a continuous sequence of occupation over some eight hundred years, suggesting that many of these sites were long-lived and thus probably contemporary. Detailed analysis of the Broxmouth sequence, supported by Bayesian analysis of around 160 AMS radiocarbon dates, demonstrates the evolution of a community that lacks any overt indicators of hierarchisation or evidence for the presence of a social elite. Extrapolating from Broxmouth to the wider settlement landscape of south-east Scotland presents a picture of multiple autonomous communities, collaborating and/or competing over many centuries. In these essentially “non-triangular” societies, autonomy at the level of the individual community was manifested through architecture and the construction/remodelling and maintenance of hillfort enclosures. Confidence in this interpretation is strengthened by the very different archaeological signatures of the Late Bronze Age and Roman Iron Age in the same area, both of which demonstrate a classically hierarchical structure.