The Iron Age, as you’d expect, is the time when people started to use iron rather than bronze to make tools and weapons. Iron is much more abundant than copper and tin. There is lots of evidence for settlement at this time, particularly hill-forts.
Most people were farmers, but probably engaged in warfare from time to time. The people at this time are often collectively called ‘the Celts’. This is a highly generalised and problematic term (as it was not in use until the Victorian Period), but is strongly embedded in modern perceptions of the period (and modern identities).
The most substantial remains at Caerau are those of this period. Community excavations have shown that the entire hill was enclosed by a simple timber fence around 600 BC (when the hillfort was built). This was replaced with a timber-fronted earthen rampart around 400 BC, before two more concentric ramparts were added. The interior of the site was densely occupied. There were large numbers of roundhouses and square storage buildings (probably raised granaries). A resident population of 100-200 people seems a reasonable estimate and represents a major settlement of a powerful community that controlled the entire Cardiff region.
A ‘typical’ Caerau roundhouse was surrounded by a circular gully (ditch) with an entrance looking towards the south-east. The walls of the roundhouse were made of timber posts (about 1 m high) arranged in a circle and joined together by wattle hurdles. Daub was then applied to the interior and exterior surfaces. The roofs were conical and thatched – rain water would have run off them to be caught in the surrounding gully. The interior would have been dark, but lit by a central fire.
