Durotriges

The Durotriges were one of the Celtic tribes living in Britain prior to the Roman invasion. The tribe lived in modern Dorset, south Wiltshire, south Somerset and Devon east of the River Axe and the discovery of an Iron Age hoard in 2009 at Shalfleet, Isle of Wight gives evidence that they may also have lived in the western half of the island. There is growing evidence to suggest that women held relatively high status in the tribe due to several factors including: high status grave goods found predominantly in female graves and the society being matrilocal. After the Roman conquest, their main civitates, or settlement-centred administrative units, were Durnovaria (modern Dorchester, "the probable original capital") and Lindinis (modern Ilchester, "whose former, unknown status was thereby enhanced"). Their territory was bordered to the west by the Dumnonii; and to the east by the Belgae.

== Name == thumb|left|Silver Stater, stylised head of Apollo, about 60 BC, obverse thumb|left|The reverse of this Celtic coin showing a stylised horse with eye behind pellets right|thumb|British Celts, gold stater from the Durotriges. Chute type with strongly Celticized, disjointed horse left and abstract head of [[Apollo on the right.]] The tribe's name is known from Ptolemy's Geography and from two inscriptions on Hadrian's Wall, both dating from after the Roman conquest of Britain. It is not known if anyone referred to them as the Durotriges before they arrived in the area now known as Dorset.