Butser Ancient Farm

Butser Ancient Farm, near Petersfield in Hampshire, England, is a working replica of an Iron Age farmstead where long-term experiments in prehistoric and Roman agriculture, animal husbandry and manufacturing are held to test ideas posited by archaeologists. The period of interest is that from 400 BC to 400 AD.

Butser Ancient Farm was founded in 1972 by experimental archaeologist Peter J Reynolds (6 November 1939 - 26 September 2001), and named after its original site at Butser Hill, a few kilometres from Petersfield. In 1976 a second site was opened at Hillhampton Down about a kilometre away, and in 1989 the original site at Butser Hill was closed down. In 1991 the project moved to Bascomb Copse at Chalton, Hampshire, about 5 km from the original site.

Buildings at the farm include simulated pre-Roman roundhouses and a simulated Roman villa. The Pimperne House was the first full-sized roundhouse to be built at the site, and at the time the largest in western Europe.

An episode of the 2005 BBC Television documentary series "What the Ancients Did for Us" examining the ideas and inventions of the Ancient Britons was filmed here.

The farm is open to the public.

External links

* [http://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/ Butser Ancient Farm]
* [http://www.gallica.co.uk/butser/ Images of the farm]

References

* Citation | last = Aston | first = Mick | author-link = Mick_Aston
title = Peter Reynolds: Archaeologist who showed us what the Iron Age was really like (obituary)
newspaper = The Guardian | year = 2001 | date = 2001-10-05
url = http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/humanities/story/0,,563844,00.html
* cite book | last = Reynolds | first = Peter J.
title = Butser Ancient Farm: Impressions
publisher = Archaeological Research
date = 1980 | location = Petersfield, Hampshire, England (This book contains many interesting monochrome photographs of the farm.)