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Summary It has been 30 years since the first scheme that categorized fragmentary Iron Age human remains in southern Britain (Wilson 1981), and nearly 20 years since Cunliffe's paper ‘Pits, Preconceptions and Propitiation’ was published (Cunliffe 1992). This study integrates the osteological, forensic and field evidence to identify archaeological signatures from three interrelated areas. The results show different depositional trends for five sites in Hampshire, and that the hillforts studied – Danebury (Hampshire) and Maiden Castle (Dorset) – demonstrate yet another pattern. Three main depositional practices were observed; intentional exposure, propitiatory deposits, and intentional practices, in which the body was kept whole in death, ran in parallel with each another.