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Ringforts are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are also many in south Wales and in Cornwall, where they are called 'Rounds'.〔http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/flyingpast/enclosed.html〕 Ringforts come in many sizes and may be made of stone or earth. Earthen ringforts would have been marked by a circular rampart (a bank and ditch), often with a stakewall. Both stone and earthen ringforts would generally have had at least one building inside. In Irish language sources they are known by a number of names: ''ráth'' (anglicised ''rath''), ''lios'' (anglicised ''lis''; cognate with Cornish ''lis''()), ''caiseal'' (anglicised ''cashel''), ''cathair'' (anglicised ''caher'' or ''cahir''; cognate with Welsh ''caer'', Cornish and Breton ''ker'') and ''dún'' (anglicised ''dun'' or ''doon''; cognate with Welsh and Cornish ''din'').〔Edwards, Nancy. ''The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland''. Routledge, 2006. Page 12.〕〔Seán P Ó Ríordáin, Ruaidhrí De Valera. ''Antiquities of the Irish countryside''. Taylor & Francis, 1979. Page 30.〕 The ''ráth'' and ''lios'' was an earthen ringfort; the ''ráth'' being the enclosing bank and the ''lios'' being the open space within.〔〔 The ''caiseal'' and ''cathair'' was a stone ringfort.〔〔 The term ''dún'' was usually used for any stronghold of importance, which may or may not be ring-shaped.〔 In Ireland, over 40,000 sites have been identified as ringforts and it is thought that at least 50,000 ringforts existed on the island.〔New History, 550〕 They are common throughout the country, with a mean density of just over one ringfort within any area of 2 km². It is likely that many have been destroyed by farming and urbanisation. However, many hitherto unknown ringforts have been found thanks to early Ordnance Survey maps, aerial photography, and the archaeological work that has accompanied road-building. In Cornwall〔 and south Wales, enclosed settlements share many characteristics with their Irish counterparts,〔Castles in the Medieval Landscape, OH Creighton & JP Freeman〕 including the circular shape and souterrains (fogous), and their continuing occupation into the early medieval period; the form later influencing the distinctive circular shell-keeps found across the medieval Severnside region.〔Medieval Severnside: the Welsh Connection, R.A. Griffiths, 1994〕 Few Cornish examples have been archaeologically excavated, with the exception of Trethurgy Rounds. ==Chronology== ''Refer to History of Ireland for a more comprehensive explanation of Ireland's history.'' The debate on chronology is primarily a result of the huge number of ringforts and the failure of any other form of settlement site to survive to modern times in any great quantity from the period before the Early Christian period or from Gaelic Ireland after the Anglo-Norman arrival. Three general theories mark the debate on the chronology of Irish ringforts; firstly the theory that wishes to date ringforts back into the Iron Age period; secondly, the theory that seeks to see the continuation of ringfort habitation into the Later Medieval and even the Modern Period; finally, the more common and generally accepted theory that ringforts were a product of the second half of the first millennium, a theory which has been given greater definition by Matthew Stout in recent years. According to the authoritative ''New History of Ireland'' (2005), "archaeologists are agreed that the vast bulk of them are the farm enclosures of the well-to-do of early medieval Ireland".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ringfort」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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