Summary.Hillforts constitute a dominant element in the settlement pattern of Iron Age Wessex. This paper examines the nature of hillforts in the light of recent excavations, and seeks to demonstrate how, over the Early and Middle Iron Age (c. 600–100 BC), these focal places acquired a range of functions central to the articulation of the socio‐economic system. At developed hillforts, cycles of exchange were orchestrated by the elite. The demise of hillforts about 100 BC is considered in the light of indigenous developments and external factors. Explanations are sought for this transformation from which the very‐different Late Iron Age system em