BRITAIN'S AGRICULTURE IN IRON AGE

Caesar commented that Britain was a land of small farms, and this has been proven by the archaeological evidence. Since Iron Age society was primarily agricultural, it is safe to presume that the daily routine would have revolved around the maintenance of the and livestock. Small farmsteads were tended by, and would have supported, isolated communities of family or extended family size, producing enough to live on and a little extra to exchange for commodities that the farmers were unable to provide for themselves.
Many of these small farmsteads, such as at Farley Mount in Hampshire, delimited with a circular bank and ditch enclosure, were surrounded by linear ditch systems that formed small rectangular fields, radiating out from the farm itself.
'It is obvious to presume that the daily routine would have revolved around the maintenance of the crops and livestock.'
Environmental evidence - in the form of carbonised grains and pollen - has shown that new crops such as emmer wheat were introduced, in addition to the spelt wheat, barley, rye and oats already grown in these fields.
Harvested crops were stored in either granaries that were raised from the ground on posts, or in bell-shaped pits 2-3m (6-7ft) deep, dug into the chalk landscape. Some 4,500 of these storage pits have been found within the hillfort interior at Danebury in Hampshire, and if they were all used to store crops, this would have essentially made the site one large fortified granary.
Although faunal evidence shows that cattle and sheep would have been the most common farm animals, it is known that pigs were also kept. The animals would have aided the family, not only with heavy farm labour, in the case of the cattle, such as the ploughing of crop fields, but also as a valuable form of manure, wool or hide, and food products.
Horses and dogs are also observed in the archaeological evidence from both faunal remains and artefacts. Horses were used for pulling 2 or 4 wheeled vehicles (carts, chariots), while dogs would have assisted in the herding of the livestock and hunting. The classical writer Strabo actually comments that Britain was famed for its hunting dogs, which were exported throughout the Roman Empire.

In: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/prehistory/ironage_intro_02.shtml. Edited to be posted by Leopoldo Costa