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Excavations at Panattoni Park, at Harpole within the Nene Valley
west of Northampton, uncovered part of a Roman villa and evidence
for preceding prehistoric and early Roman settlement. The earliest
evidence was a Mesolithic flint-knapping site. During the early
Iron Age or at the start of the middle Iron Age, a pit alignment
was constructed running down the valley side. A middle Iron Age
settlement of at least seven roundhouses lay 450m to the east of
the pit alignment. It is likely that both the boundary and the
settlement were associated with cattle grazing on the valley floor,
and the settlement may have been seasonally occupied. An enclosure
complex was constructed against the pit alignment during the late
Iron Age and occupied until c AD 50/70, after which there was an
apparent hiatus of about a century before the establishment of the
villa during the mid-2nd century. The villa was first discovered in
the 1840s when a mosaic was accidentally uncovered. It was believed
to have been largely destroyed during widening of the adjacent
A4500 road in 1966 when excavation of only a small area was
possible. However, the new excavation has demonstrated the survival
of part of the main villa complex, including a substantial aisled
building that may have formed the southern range. An extensive part
of the agricultural landscape surrounding the villa was
investigated, including an area devoted to malting and an enclosure
complex used as a stockyard for processing livestock. A further
notable find was a small hoard of mower's tools, perhaps the
toolkit of an individual agricultural worker. A building
interpreted as a temple-mausoleum of Romano-Celtic form situated
beside a spring channel was also investigated. Pollen from the
channel indicating the presence of a walnut grove may be the
earliest definite evidence for the cultivation of walnut trees in
Britain.
Excavations at the site of the burial ground of the old Radcliffe
Infirmary, Oxford, revealed the largest assemblage of individual
burials yet recovered from an 18th/19th century hospital site in
Britain. Founded in 1770 with funds from the estate of the Royal
physician and MP John Radcliffe, the infirmary was rare in having
its own dedicated burial ground. The skeletons span a short period
of time, between 1770 and 1852, and comprise patients who had not
been claimed for burial in their home parish. Virtually all of them
are unidentified, but documentary evidence shows that they comprise
members of the labouring and middle classes, most of whom had
originated from the locality and the surrounding counties. Their
bones provide an important perspective on the health of
industrialising post-medieval populations, characterised by high
rates of trauma and disease. They highlight the hitherto
unrecognised role that the operating theatre and mortuary played in
the development of medical education in Oxford. Further, they offer
a unique and fascinating perspective on early modern hospital care,
surgery and burial, from a period when hospitals underwent a
radical transformation, becoming the medically-focused institutions
that we know today.
Excavation in advance of engineering works along the M1 from
Junctions 6a to 10 (between Hemel Hempstead and Luton) revealed
significant archaeological remains of wide-ranging date. Important
evidence for late Mesolithic and early Neolithic activity,
including pits, was found at Junction 9, while later prehistoric
features were more widely distributed but less concentrated. Late
Iron Age and Roman features were most common, with significant
rural settlements at Junctions 8 and 9, and further evidence for
trackways and enclosures elsewhere. These sites were of fairly low
status and concerned with mixed agriculture, though incidental
activities included manufacture of puddingstone querns. Occupation
was most intensive in the 1st-2nd centuries AD and on a reduced
scale in the late Roman period. At Junction 8, however, an
east-west trackway apparently survived as a landscape feature and
in the 12th and 13th centuries was adjoined by a ditched enclosure
containing structures belonging to a substantial farmstead.
Excavations by Oxford Archaeology in advance of a programme of
improvements to the railway between Bicester and Oxford
investigated part of the south-eastern extramural settlement
associated with the Roman fortress and subsequent town at
Alchester, Oxfordshire, as well as rural settlements in its rural
hinterland. The investigations at Alchester extended across two
successive routes south to Dorchester-on-Thames, the earlier of
which by-passed the eastern side of Otmoor and was superseded by a
more direct route across the moor at the end of the 1st century AD.
Settlement beside the earlier road may have been a successor to a
pre-Roman settlement and appears from artefactual evidence to have
been of quite high status during the initial, military phase,
although no contemporary structural evidence was found.
Stone-founded buildings were constructed during the late 1st-early
2nd century, including two single-celled structures of uncertain
function that may represent a gatehouse or a pair of shrines. The
buildings were demolished by c AD 200, when the area was abandoned.
An insight into the diverse lives of the inhabitants is provided by
finds that included part of a priestly headdress, two pairs of
slave shackles and a group of roof tiles bearing the footprints of
a young child. The extramural settlement may have been partly rural
in character, involved in farming the landscape around the town,
which was intensively managed for agricultural production, probably
as meadow and pasture. Ditched enclosures beside the later road may
have been part of a second extramural area or a discrete farming
establishment. No buildings were identified but two large pits
contained domestic refuse and building material. Excavations at six
other locations investigated farmsteads that dated from the middle
Iron Age to the 3rd century AD and included a rare deposit of
debris from copper and iron working from a middle Iron Age
enclosure ditch.
Lankhills and its late Roman cemetery have played a significant
role in the understanding of the military in civilian areas of
Roman Britain in the fourth century, and these new excavations
double the number of graves explored and add to the variety of
finds represented. New analytical techiques show that some of those
buried were immigrants from other parts of Europe and perhaps even
North Africa. The new excavations revealed a further 307 inhumation
graves (plus six more partly excavated previously) and 25 more
cremation burials. The most spectacular individual burial contained
a gilded and inscribed crossbow brooch, silver gilt belt fitting
and decorated spurs, a unique assemblage for Roman Britain. The
report provides a full catalogue of the graves and a comprehensive
study of the finds.
The valley floodplain landscape covered by the Gill Mill quarry,
almost 130ha, was intensively exploited from about 300 BC at a
variety of Iron Age settlements. The largest of these remained in
occupation into the early 3rd century AD, but meanwhile a large
nucleated settlement grew up around a road junction roughly 1km
distant to the NW. This became the sole focus of occupation,
covering an area of about 10ha. Featuring multiple ditched
enclosures, some in very regular layouts associated with one of the
roads, the settlement contained relatively few identified buildings
and appears to have had a specialised economic role related to
systematic cattle management, illuminated in part by large finds
and environmental assemblages. It may have been an integral
component of a wider estate holding and perhaps had an
administrative focus (including a shrine) at its unexcavated
centre. It is notable that occupation of the site had almost
entirely ceased by about AD 370.
This volume presents the results of investigations undertaken by
Oxford Archaeology between 2003 and 2011 in advance of construction
of the Banbury Flood Alleviation Scheme, Oxfordshire. The main
element of these investigations was an excavation at the site of a
borrow pit for clay to be used in constructing the flood defences.
Geophysical surveys of two other areas that revealed dense
concentrations of buried archaeological remains not subsequently
affected by the scheme are also reported. The excavation uncovered
a multi-period landscape containing a regionally significant
Neolithic occupation site, as well as later features. The Neolithic
remains comprised 35 pits that produced large assemblages of flint
and pottery, mainly Peterborough Ware of middle Neolithic date
(associated with radiocarbon dates of c 3350-2650 BC). A single
substantial but enigmatic middle Bronze Age ditch contained few
finds, but these included a radius from an aurochs, one of the
latest examples of this species in Britain. Late pre-Roman Iron Age
occupation was represented by an oval double-ditched enclosure
which, following a brief hiatus, was succeeded toward the end of
the 1st century AD by a more extensive low-status farmstead. The
settlement was redeveloped during the 2nd century before finally
being abandoned in the early-mid 3rd century. Artefactual and
palaeoenvironmental assemblages, as well as the spatial arrangement
of the settlement, provided evidence regarding the economy, status
and social organisation of the community. The volume includes a
consideration of the results of the project in the context of Iron
Age and Roman settlement of the Cherwell Valley.
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