The landscape setting of the Iron Age oppidum and Roman city of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) was initially explored through analysis of the available aerial photography and Lidar data over c. 1000 km2. Focusing on a 50 km square centred on Calleva, six locations with suspected later prehistoric enclosures were sampled by coring and excavation and accompanied by extensive programmes of radiocarbon dating and environmental, especially pollen analysis. Phases of activity and/or settlement were followed by abandonment and the regeneration of the woodland. Neolithic and Bronze Age activity was identified, but the first permanent settlements appeared to be of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age date. The period with the most numerous settlements is the Middle Iron Age (4th to 2nd century BC), which was characterised by hillforts and smaller ditched enclosures. Their abandonment was once again followed by woodland regeneration. At the end of the 1st century BC new settlements were founded, including the 38 ha defended oppidum in a wooded and otherwise empty landscape. A territory with a radius of c. 2 km and devoid of individual farmsteads was established around the oppidum to provide land for cultivation and grazing and it was retained with the founding of the Roman city. This territory corresponds approximately with the combined present-day parishes of Mortimer West End and Silchester. The charcoal assemblages show evidence for the management of the woodlands including for the preparation of charcoal from the Late Iron Age though the Roman and into the medieval period. Dated charcoal shows continued activity in the Environs in the post-Roman and early medieval periods including the re-occupation of the hillfort at Pond Farm.

This book explores the distinctive landscape and society of South-West England that had emerged by the Iron Age and which continued to develop during the Roman and medieval periods. A focus of the research was the long-term programme of survey and excavation on the Iron Age, Roman, and early medieval settlement at Dainton Elms Cross, in Ipplepen (Devon), which included the only Roman roadside settlement to have seen extensive excavation to the south and west of Exeter on the very edge of the Roman empire, as well as a substantial early medieval cemetery. First discovered through the reporting of an unusual concentration of Roman finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the site was investigated through a joint university and community project led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the British Museum/PAS, Devon County Council, and Cotswold Archaeology. What for the South-West of England was exceptional preservation meant that large amounts of animal bone, charred cereals, and human remains were preserved, alongside a regionally important material culture assemblage. The site – which had been occupied for c. 1200 years – was abandoned around the 8th century AD. A programme of documentary, place-name, and historic landscape research across a study area extending from the coast up onto Dartmoor explores the context of this major landscape change, which appears to have been associated with the appearance of hamlets and open fields, and the fragmentation of an ‘early folk territory’. Together, the excavations in Ipplepen and the wider contextual research reveal how communities living in South-West England developed a distinctive identity that reflects a well-developed understanding of their region’s natural environment alongside a degree of ambivalence to outside cultural influences.

The River Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire has a long history of water milling, stretching back to at least the 10th century and possibly to the Roman period. The authors use remote sensing (LiDAR), cartographic analysis, fieldwork, documents (especially contemporary litigation) and literary sources, to reveal new findings about this fascinating landscape. The Great Ouse’s watermills were recorded as the most valuable in England in the Domesday Survey. All their sites are located, several having been long-lost, and a comprehensive explanation for their national pre-eminence is given. The expansion of activity in the Middle Ages is investigated through a detailed study of the disputes arising from the competing uses of the river and its flood plain for water milling, navigation and farming. Channel features that, hitherto, have either been ignored or attributed to natural processes are shown to be the result of milling activity. The continuing impact of water milling on the landscape until its decline in the second half of the 19th century is analyzed. The authors’ findings have broader implications for the understanding of the development of water milling in lowland river landscapes; the evolution of parish boundaries; and the development of multi-channel river forms. They conclude by advocating a mapping methodology that designates landscape features resulting from water milling as heritage assets, to guide planning decisions.

Early medieval stone sculptures survive across Europe: at waysides, in architectural settings and in churches and graveyards, and provide an exceptional source for understanding the aesthetics and beliefs of early medieval communities. England is no exception to this. Thousands of intact and fragmentary stone monuments survive from the seventh to eleventh centuries CE, evidencing the emergence of a rich Anglo-Saxon sculptural tradition in stone. These often elaborately carved monuments that were generally painted – some with considerable sophistication – and could be inset with paste glass and metal, provide clear evidence of a rich and new form of visual material culture connected with the Church in the region. Some monuments acted as liturgical markers, others as markers of working relations between secular and ecclesiastical communities, while others still commemorated the dead, and some fragments demonstrate the ways in which stone buildings were decorated both inside and out. By the tenth century, stone crosses and monuments were frequently commissioned by the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian secular elites, demonstrating strong connections between sculptural commemoration, power, and identity. For decades, the celebrated project, the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, has provided information on these monuments, cataloguing each example in terms of date, geology, and decoration. This multi-authored volume draws on the expertise of many specialists connected with the Corpus to provide a first accessible national overview of the resource. Thematic chapters reflect on discoveries to date and archaeological and art historical approaches to researching and understanding sculpture. Key themes include quarrying and production, chronology, the intellectual and artistic context for sculpture, aesthetics and iconography, and the places and contexts of sculpture use. This extensively illustrated volume introduces Anglo-Saxon sculpture in its broader European context and offers a stepping-off point for all those wanting to learn more and research these often-enigmatic fragments.

Between 2013 and 2018, the construction of a new industrial park afforded Oxford Archaeology the opportunity to investigate 19ha of land on the western edge of Raunds, Northamptonshire. The archaeological works revealed evidence for human activity spanning the early Neolithic to middle Saxon periods. From at least the early 18th century, the area has been under cultivation and has conse-quently suffered the effects of a substantial period of ploughing. Key to the development of the site was an early Neolithic monumental ditched enclosure, recorded in the Northamptonshire Historic Environment Record (NHER) as Cotton ‘Henge’. Its excavation provided important new evidence for its date and its influence on the surrounding landscape. Nearby lay middle and late Neolithic pits containing pottery and struck flint. Positioned at the centre of the ‘Henge’ was an early Bronze Age barrow, which was subsequently incorporated into a Middle Bronze Age field system.Dense settlement remains dating to the early to middle Iron Age transition extended across much of the site, including structures, numerous storage pits or silos, cobbled trackways and a pit alignment. Large assemblages of pottery, animal bone and other finds came from these features, alongside rich environmental remains.Romano-British activity was significant, with non-settlement, craft and agrarian-related remains extending across the area. Features included a pottery kiln and corn dryer, various burials and six stone-lined wells. The latter yielded important finds and environmental assemblages, preserved in their waterlogged fills. The most impressive item was a near life-sized carved wooden arm, believed to be a votive offering. This is an extremely rare find and perhaps the only item of its type from Roman Britain.Anglo-Saxon settlement took the form of numerous sunken-featured buildings. By the post-medieval period, the development site lay beneath strip fields associated with the village of Raunds to the east; by this time, the adjacent medieval village of Mallows Cotton (located to the immediate west) had been abandoned.The archaeological evidence uncovered at Warth Park has demonstrated that this area has been a widely exploited and managed landscape for approximately five millennia. The remains reflect an agricultural site, with associated craft and funerary activity, linked to known settlement areas in the wider environs.

Excavations by OCA during 2015 at Oxford Road, Thame revealed activity from the Neolithic to the Late Saxon period. This has now been published by OCA in two illustrated volumes. Volume 1 describes how Early Neolithic pits and a three-circuit causewayed enclosure – possibly one of the largest known – were succeeded by later prehistoric activity including an extensive Early Iron Age settlement. This included structures and numerous pits, some of which contained notable deposits of material involving pottery, animal remains and other finds. A small cemetery included the remains of at least 13 people.

The second volume covers how Late Iron Age fields were replaced during the Early Roman period with larger scale land division related to agriculture, reflected in finds of millstones and corn driers. Two inhumation burials date to the very end of the Roman or the early post-Roman period. A settlement which comprised 13 sunken-featured buildings was established in the 6th–7th centuries AD. One building had burned down, preserving important information about the structure and materials which had been used in its construction. Several buildings contained evidence of weaving equipment in the form of loomweights. A ditched enclosure was created during the Late Saxon period with nearby ovens providing evidence for both crop drying and malting at a time when the nearby town of Thame was being established. Finds and environmental remains are examined in detail.

Initial remote sensing survey at Tlachtga, Co. Meath in 2011–12 highlighted the presence of multiple, partially overlapping phases of enclosure at the site. Three subsequent seasons of excavation provided critical interpretive evidence, with over 15,000 fragments of animal bone, human remains, charred plant material, evidence of metalworking, and a hoard of Anglo-Saxon silver coins dating to the late 10th century AD. The main activity at the site spans four broad periods and two main phases of monumental construction: a late Bronze Age to early Iron Age ‘Hillfort Phase’ (1100–400 BC) and a late Iron Age to early medieval (AD 400–600) ringfort phase associated with a smaller foundation enclosure – the ‘Southern Enclosure’. This ringfort phase was remodelled later in the early medieval period (9th–10th century AD) and augmented by a phase of mound construction in the mid-10th century AD. This is contemporary with the deposition of the coin hoard east of the main complex in an apparent craft-working area. The final phase of the central mound indicates the construction of a timber stockade, most likely in the 12th century, again with significant craft activity.This volume represents the excavation of at least four loci within the broader monumental landscape of Tlachtga, charting its progression from Bronze Age hillfort to pre-Anglo Norman power display mound.The excavations at the Hill of Ward and this publication were made possible through funding by the National Monuments Service via the Royal Irish Academy archaeological research excavation grants, and by Meath County Council, with additional support by the Office of Public Works and the Heritage Council.

This volume brings together recent excavations at two sites in Pocklington, East Yorkshire. The main focus of the volume is examination of Iron Age burials, which included chariots, swords, and spears, along with inclusion of earlier Prehistoric and later Roman activity. The excavations have enabled further scientific evidence for migration and mobility in the Iron Age population and secure chronologies for artefacts. New evidence from osteological analysis gives support for Warrior Graves and burial rites. The volume also examines the Pocklington shield, which has been described as one of the most significant pieces of Iron Age art. The exceptional finds, including a dismantled chariot with horses and an upright chariot also with horses, captured the world’s media and the public imagination. The excavations at Pocklington in 2017 and 2018 were featured on BBC 4’s Digging for Britain series and was voted Current Archaeology Rescue Project of the Year 2018. Anglian elements will be included in an additional volume.

Pottery was at the heart of the ‘Neolithic package’ appearing in Britain with the first farmers around 4000 BC. It arrived as a mature technology and was essential to the new, largely sedentary, lifestyle and economy. It transformed storage and cooking practices, and the earliest ceramics seem to have been essential equipment in the new practice of dairying. The pottery changed over time and, as a result, ceramics have been fundamental to the construction of relative chronologies since the early days of modern archaeology. Even with the development of absolute dating techniques, the role of pottery as a dating tool has not diminished but instead has become refined and more accurate.But pottery is not just a tool for dating the past – it also represents a facet of prehistoric art and expression. Starting simply, ceramics became arguably the main medium for display, with often complex designs. Simple techniques, motifs and panels are combined to create highly decorated vessels, often of great individuality. The use of inlays, pastes and slips added contrasting colours to these vibrant designs.By the end of the Neolithic, ceramics became one of the major grave goods of British prehistory, acting as accompaniments to those that warranted formal burial whether by inhumation or cremation. This practice continued throughout the Early Bronze Age to the extents that, lacking contemporary domestic sites, most of the corpora of Early Bronze Age ceramics are largely sepulchral in context. As we increasingly realise that burial rituals may have been varied and complex, so the roles of these ceramics are becoming all the more questioned.This book traces the 3000 years of ceramic use and development in Britain, charting the changing forms and decorative techniques and the differing and changing roles that pottery played within its contemporary society.

The valley of the western Rother lies within the South Downs National Park but has a special character based on its Cretaceous geology of sandstones and clays. These give rise to soils that are ideal for agriculture but are extremely erodible. Over the centuries the area has been exploited by humans and partially cleared of forest. In this book, the archaeological history of the Rother Valley is summarized, with particular emphasis on the evidence for Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman occupation. Analysis of sediments in ponds adds to the evidence for changes that have happened over the last few hundred years. A notable feature of the cultural landscape is the network of sunken lanes.The Rother Valley contains unique chalk-aquifer fed streams with rare and protected species, such as sea trout and otter. Heathland, floodplain, wet meadows and woodlands are interspersed with agriculture, linked together by hedgerows and ditches. The health of the river is threatened by polluting inputs from farming and sewage. Past weather and hydrological records show the potential impact of climate change on the functioning of the river. The impact of recent changes on water availability for irrigation and human consumption are explored in relation to ecosystem requirements. Soil erosion is a significant problem, with the resulting high river sediment concentrations requiring expensive cleaning for the water to be fit for human consumption and the runoff often causes flooding of roads and properties. Mitigation measures aim to reduce the loss of soil on fields and interrupt connectivity between fields and the river system. We identify sediment sources contributing eroded soil to the river, the function of field-edge sediment traps, in-stream weirs and major reservoirs on sediment storage and connectivity.Finally, the book considers the future of the unique landscape that is the Rother Valley, including plans for restoration of the flood plain. Contributors include planners, researchers and managers of the large estates that are an integral part of the Rother landscape.

The date of the Cerne Giant has long been a matter for debate, as exemplified by a public and televised debate of March 1996, published as The Cerne Giant: An Antiquity on Trial (1999, Oxbow Books). Excavations were conducted in 2020 by the National Trust in the centenary year of its ownership of the Giant. The excavations were limited and targeted in extent and scope, the aim was to date the actual construction of the iconic figure by absolute dating methods (OSL). As the 1999 publication explained, the jury was still out – with advocates for a prehistoric origin, one connected to the period of the Civil War or a more modern one. In the event, the dates were a complete surprise, falling within the Anglo-Saxon period.The research has provided an accurate, scientifically verified date for the Cerne Giant. These unexpected results, together with the land-use history and ominous ‘disappearance’ of the Giant for six centuries, provide the platform for reconsideration and new discussion and debate.Part 1 deals with new research: the historical background and aims, the excavation results, stratigraphic finds, geoarchaeological interpretation, land-use history (environmental/land snails), and discussion. Part 2 is the wider discussion and implications derived from the results and places the Giant in his local and Saxon context. Part 3 begins with summaries of the other two excavated hill figures (the Long Man of Wilmington and the Uffington White Horse) followed by a series of essays from leading archaeologists, historians and experts in early medieval iconography.

Northwold Manor is a multi-period listed building (grade II*), about which almost nothing was known. Uninhabited since 1955, it had fallen into a state of extreme dereliction, and was beyond economic repair when the author purchased the property in 2014. He and his wife, Diane Gibbs, embarked on a major restoration that ran for nine years. The restoration was carried out as a quasi-archaeological operation, revealing that the building complex had Tudor origins, followed by the construction of a Stuart house, with Georgian improvements, and a new entertaining suite added in 1814. The Manor, with its fine drawing room, ballroom and orangery, was the grandest house in Northwold, and research into the families that occupied it revealed unexpected connections to the French Bourbon Court. From the 17th to the 20th century, the Carters were the principal owners, and a local branch of the family included Howard Carter, discoverer of Tutankhamen’s tomb.This account begins with a topographical study of Northwold and its three medieval manors, followed by an exploration of the decline of the Carter family in the late 19th century. That triggered the break-up of the Northwold Estate in 1919. Passing through several ownerships, the Manor was earmarked for demolition in 1961; reprieved, it became a furniture store in the 1970s, and every room was solidly packed. As the roofs failed and water poured in, ceilings and floors collapsed, carrying with them the stacks of rotting furniture. By the late 1990s, walls and gables were collapsing too, and the local authority attempted to intervene. A long struggle to save the Manor ensued, finally ending with compulsory purchase in 2013.Although manor houses occur in most English parishes, they have received surprisingly little archaeological study. Every year, hundreds are restored or altered, but rarely accompanied by detailed recording or scholarly research; and popular television programs reveal the shameful level of destruction that takes place in the name of ‘restoration’. This is a book like no other: the holistic approach to the rehabilitation of Northwold’s derelict manor house – involving history, archaeology, architecture and genealogy – demonstrates how much can be learned about a building that had never before been studied. The project has received several awards.

Excavations carried out prior to the construction of a new fire station in Guildford, Surrey, revealed a well preserved, in situ Late Upper Palaeolithic flint scatter. The site lay on cold climate fluvial sandy gravels deposited in braided stream systems prior to the onset of the Late Glacial (Windermere) interstadial. Typological analysis of the flint and OSL dates suggest that the scatter itself dates from the first half of the Late Glacial (Windermere) interstadial (c 1415KBP). The lithic assemblage is homogeneous and, apart from initial extraction and nodule testing, all stages of flint manufacture are represented. Two main concentrations of knapping are represented, the main focus of which were the production of blade blanks some of which were removed from the site. Functional analysis of the tools suggests relatively short occupation during which hunting, smallscale craft activities linked with the retooling of hunting weapons and the manufacture of hide items, and limited processing of animal and plant materials took place. The assemblage is comparable to that from Wey Manor Farm, Surrey, 17km further downstream, and raises the question of the relationship between the two sites. Both share technological and typological features in common with the Creswellian, though Wey Manor Farm has a greater diversity in lithic point types. Comparison with Continental assemblages suggests that the Surrey sites share affinities with the Older Azilian or equivalents in northwest France and Germany and implies strong postMagdalenian influences in the Late Upper Palaeolithic of Britain.

This volume reports on two excavations carried out by Oxford Archaeology on the outskirts of Wallingford, at Slade End Farm and Winterbrook. The two sites provide windows into the same gravel terrace landscape and together shed significant new light on the prehistory of the south Oxfordshire Thames Valley. Slade End Farm was repeatedly visited for settlement in the early Neolithic. Numerous clusters of pits were found that contained pottery, flintwork and other finds. A pair of inhumation burials was also discovered. Sparser settlement subsequently occurred at the two sites during the middle and late Neolithic and the Beaker period. Landscape organisation dramatically changed in the middle Bronze Age, when ditched field systems or enclosure complexes were laid out at both sites. A waterhole containing a log ladder was also found. Environmental evidence suggests a landscape of largely open grassland used for grazing. While no buildings were found, concentrations of finds in some enclosures suggest that they were foci for domestic activity. Several burials were also found at each site. Both sites were reoccupied for settlement during the early and middle Iron Age. Roundhouses were built, and a series of boundaries and enclosures laid out. A double pit alignment dug in the early Iron Age at Slade End Farm separated the occupied area from the lower, wetter ground to the south. One of the pits from this alignment contained an inhumation burial. A complete, decorated copper alloy bracelet that had been placed in a posthole is a rare survival. At Winterbrook, part of a settlement dating to the 11th to 12th centuries was also uncovered, providing the first good archaeological evidence for a rural community in the immediate hinterland of the medieval town of Wallingford.

Early Neolithic occupation (from about 3600 BC) was represented by small groups of pits which were partly contemporary with a well-known round barrow – a protected monument called Wick Barrow or Pixies’ Mound – lying just outside the development site. Later prehistoric remains included Bronze Age burnt mounds, boundary ditches, a Late Bronze Age enclosure, and an Early Iron Age midden. There was more widespread Late Iron Age and Roman settlement, including a seasonally occupied linear settlement with evidence of salt-making. Contemporary activity included a nearby late Roman settlement. On another site a sequence of occupation from the late Iron Age to modern eras was examined. Here historical documents add to the account of the site and preserved the names of some of the farm’s recent inhabitants.