Wilton

Wilton, town, England

Wilton, town (1991 pop. 4,005), Wiltshire, S central England. Carpets have been made in Wilton for centuries. Felt and farm machinery are other important products. Three sheep fairs are held annually. Wilton was an ancient capital of Wessex and the residence of Saxon kings. In the 9th cent., Wilton was the site of a battle between King Alfred and the Danes. The town was a bishopric until 1050. Wilton House, in which Philip Sidney wrote Arcadia, was partly designed by Inigo Jones. It is the seat of the earl of Pembroke.

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Wilton, town, United States

Wilton, town (1990 pop. 15,989), Fairfield co., SW Conn.; settled c.1701, inc. 1802. It is a residential and agricultural town.

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Wilton 

an archaeological culture of the late Stone Age, widespread in southern and eastern Africa. Named after a cliff found on the Wilton farm in Cape Province, Republic of South Africa, west of the city of Grahamstown.

In several areas the Wilton culture was replaced by the Neolithic with polished stone axes, but in most regions it existed up to modern times (in a number of regions, stone weapons of the Wilton type were preserved until the 19th century), when along with stone, iron weapons came into use. (For instance, in the region of the upper reaches of the Orange River, the smelting of iron appeared in the beginning of the 13th century.) Miniature stone weapons (microlites) of geometric outline—segments, trapeziums, and rounded scrapers (connected to the development of compound weapons with stone insets)—bored stone hoops, arrowheads of stone and bone, clay vessels, and beads made from ostrich egg shells were characteristic of Wilton. The people of the Wilton culture lived in caves and in the open and practiced hunting. Agriculture and domestic animals were absent.

REFERENCES

Alimen, H. Doistoricheskaia Afrika. Moscow, 1960. (Translated from French.)
Oakley, K. P. Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man, 2nd ed. London, 1966.

P. I. BORISKOVSKII