'THE BERTH', SHROPSHIRE, ENGLAND

(a very brief history)

The Berth is a fascinating and undiscovered Iron Age hillfort hidden away from gaze in the privately owned farmland of the North Shropshire countryside of England. Almost two and a half thousand years old, its magnificent presence was once reflected in the waters of marsh and mere but now it stands, a shadow of its former self, in pasture land, looking like nothing more than a tree covered hill. For an historic site that has been said to be the Welsh king, Cynddylan's, Llys Pengwern (the court of the kingdom of Pengwern) and suggested in the book, King Arthur - the True Story to be the historical Arthur's Avalon, there is very little known about it and no future archaeology planned for it.

The small amount of archaeology done on this site has found mid-Iron Age finds as well as 4th Century. However, it was commented at the time that, whilst no post-Roman finds had been made, there was evidence of post-Roman features. Besides the archaeological finds, a bronze cauldron dated to the 1st Century AD was found in 1906.

The Berth, and the west and northwest Midlands region of what is now England, were once occupied by the Cornovii tribe. It is thought, by some, that this Celtic tribe was a poor, warring, warrior nation because few artefacts of beauty or pottery have been found that they made or had the wealth to acquire. This, and the amount of hill forts in their territory,  lead archaeologists to believe the Cornovii were nothing but an infighting bunch of impoverished Britons with no taste in jewellery! However, others believe that we don't find much of the Cornovii artwork because they weren't 'materialists' like other tribes but showed their status by building of hill forts. In short, they were more an export tribe than a warring one, who showed off buy constructing things rather than adorning themselves. Hill forts need many people to construct them and you have to pay them in some way and they have to have the time to build them. How do you do this if you’re poor and constantly fighting?

Whatever the state of affairs at this time, it created over 50 hill forts in the county of Shropshire alone. 'The Berth' is different to most in that it lies in marshland as oppose to moorland hills and was really more of a 'mound fort'. Its position and unique double camp construction with joining causeways makes it some what of an enigma. This didn't stop us from wanting to reconstruct it as it might have been in 300 BC and 540 AD and we were very much surprised at the amount of information we were able to 'dig up' about it. We think you will be surprised too.

OUR REBIRTH OF THE BERTH

Although this reconstruction was done as another addition to our portfolio, it has also been a long term labour of love. The biggest challenge was recreating the terrain in which the site lies. Without the aid of a £40,000 laser terrain scanner we had to rely on aerial and satellite photos as well as observations and contour maps. We learnt a great deal in the process, which we have been able to apply to others.

We have added quite a number of characters to our online experience, but it's important to make any prospective client aware that this may not always be possible. The figures we use at present have a limited use to none paying internet work. Any work we create that is paid for or will become part of printed material that will be sold, cannot include this particular kind of 3D figure. There are other methods that can be applied, such as adding photographic models onto our 3D images.