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In common with other volumes in the Thames Through Time series,
this account of the Thames Valley in the millennium and a half
before the Roman conquest seeks to examine change in human society
from a thematic point of view. The geographical and chronological
framework for this volume is established in Chapters 1 and 2, but
thereafter we have tried to get away from the traditional, somewhat
artificial pigeon-holes of 'periods' 'ages' 'eras' and 'phases' to
look much harder at how change in human society actually works. In
a period when the 20th century has come to dominate secondary
school history and much popular TV, the notion that the first
foundations of modern society can be traced back more than 3000
years may seem a rather surprising proposition. But some
fundamental patterns of settlement and landuse, political
boundaries, human impact on the environment, and even the specific
use and form of a few places can be traced back to late prehistoric
times despite millennia of subsequent change - even though
otherwise we may now have very little in common with those remote
ancestors. Exploring these issues on a thematic basis should help
us to gain a better understanding of how human society evolves and
also of how people have altered their natural environment,
providing a better long term perspective on what we are doing to
the planet. (Oxford Archaeology 2008)
The site at Whitecross Farm, including timber structures located on
the edge of the eyot, and a substantial midden and occupation
deposit has been securely radiocarbon-dated to the late Bronze Age.
The late Bronze Age artefact assemblages are suggestive of a
high-status site, with a range of domestic and ritual activities
represented. The bank of the Grim's Ditch earthwork was found to
have preserved evidence of earlier settlement, dating to the
Neolithic and Bronze Age, and a sequence of cultivation, including
ard marks and 'cord-rig' cultivation ridges. Pottery and
radiocarbon analysis dated the earthwork to the end of the late
Iron Age or the early Roman period. A multi-period settlement,
consisting of pits, a waterhole, postholes, gullies and field
systems, was identified at Bradford's Brook, Cholsey. The main
periods represented are late Bronze Age and Romano-British, while a
small quantity of Saxon pottery indicates limited Saxon activity. A
large pit containing late Bronze Age pottery, a cattle skull,
waterlogged wood and plant remains, a complete loomweight and flint
flakes has been interpreted as a waterhole. A series of radiocarbon
dates were obtained for deposits within this feature. All three
sites are discussed individually as well as within their local,
regional and national contexts. Chapter 7 provides an overall
discussion of later Bronze Age themes that have arisen through the
excavation and analysis of these sites.
Excavations conducted between 1981 and 1986 in advance of gravel
extraction in Gravelly Guy field, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire,
revealed archaeological evidence spanning from the Neolithic
through to the Saxon period. Neolithic and early Bronze Age
activity is represented by pit scatters and a series of ring
ditches with associated burials. The Iron Age and early Roman
periods witnessed the continuous development of a linear
settlement, consisting of a dense area of pits, gullies, circular
structures, four-posters and boundary ditches in the mid to late
Iron Age phase and a series of rectilinear enclosures and unusual
'ramped hollows' and wells in the late Iron Age/early Roman period.
Excavation of a section at the junction of the floodplain and the
gravel terrace has also provided information regarding the changing
land use and contemporary environment in the vicinity of the site.
Gravelly Guy remains one of the most thoroughly excavated sites of
this period in the Thames Valley. As well as the vast amount of
structural evidence, the considerable quantities of artefacts and
environmental information recovered, together with a series of ten
radiocarbon dates, have resulted in a detailed study of the site,
its position in the landscape and relationship to the contemporary
archaeology of the surrounding area.
Excavations at Mount Farm revealed a long sequence of activity
running from the early Neolithic to the early Saxon period. The
most significant finds include early Neolithic pit deposits, a
middle Neolithic oval barrow associated with a primary burial and a
secondary Beaker burial, a timber post-ring, an earlier Bronze Age
round barrow associated with Deverel-Rimbury secondary burials, a
later Bronze Age waterhole and burnt mound, extensive remains of an
Iron Age settlement and a well-preserved Anglo-Saxon well. This is
an innovative report which approaches the site from a thematic
perspective which highlights social, economic and environmental
change over the long period during which the site was occupied.
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