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Excavations at Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire, 1983-5
Volume 2: The Romano British cemetery and Anglo Saxon settlement
By Richard Chambers and Ellen McAdam
Excavation between 1983 5 at Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire recorded three distinct phases of activity: a prehistoric monument complex (already published in Volume 1), a Romano-British cemetery and an early Anglo Saxon settlement. The Romano-British cemetery consisted of 69 burials dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries and occurring as distinct burial groups and isolated graves; both inhumations and cremations were found. The report considers the evidence for the organisation of the cemetery, orientation, age and sex, body position, decapitation, coffins, inhumation versus cremation, grave goods, chronology and location.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement was composed of post-built structures, sunken-featured buildings, two inhumations, pits, debris dumped into the prehistoric barrow ditches and various other features. The settlement is dated by finds evidence to the 4th to early 7th centuries. The Anglo-Saxon features at the nearby site of Barton Court Farm may have been part of the same settlement. The finds and archaeological deposits are described in a series of gazetteers.
The Archaeology of the A1 (M) Darrington to Dishforth DBFO Road Scheme
Fraser Brown, Christine Howard-Davis, Mark Brennand, Angela Boyle, Thomas Evans, Sonia O’Connor, Anthony Spence, Richard Heawood, and Alan Lupton
The construction of the A1 (M) Darrington to Dishforth DBFO road scheme has provided an important opportunity to investigate landscape development over time in parts of West and North Yorkshire. Over sixty archaeological sites were investigated in advance of and alongside the massive engineering works in one of the largest programmes of archaeological fieldwork seen in the UK. The results of the work will greatly enhance understanding of the archaeology of the magnesian limestone areas of West and North Yorkshire. The most significant results are presented here in this book funded by the Highways Agency as part of its commitment to the historic environment and dissemination of work undertaken on its behalf.
Excavations of Medieval and Early Post-Medieval features at 90-93 Broad St, Reading
(Oxford Archaeology Occasional Paper No. 13)
By Andrew Norton and Daniel Poore
Excavations in 2002 at 90-93 Broad Street, Reading revealed a ditch and evidence for cultivation possibly within the grounds of the Saxon Minster; a small assemblage of early to mid Saxon pottery was recovered from later deposits. Medieval gravel pits, cess pits and a bell mould pit were founded in the back yards of tenements fronting Broad St and Chain St, immediately to the north of St Mary’s Churchyard. It is likely that the bell mould pit was for the casting of a 13th-century bell for St Mary’s. The pits contained exceptional assemblages of bird, fish and animal bone, suggestive of primary butchery and skinning in the vicinity, as well as the presence of a high status household. There were also notable assemblages of 11th- to 13th-century pottery and 16th- to 17th-century glass.
The excavation of Medieval pits and a probable 16th- to 17th-century tavern or inn at 7-8 Broad street, Reading, Berkshire, 2002
(Oxford Archaeology Occasional Paper No 14)
By Nicola Scott and Alan Hardy
Excavations at 7-8 Broad Street (Market Way), Reading, revealed part of a possible 16th- to 17th-century tavern or inn, situated behind the street frontage. Discoveries included a stone built cess pit and a cellar, built in the 16th century and demolished in the 17th century. A large collection of pottery associated with the serving and consumption of drink, fine Venetian-style glassware and a few early clay pipes were recovered from these features. Limited evidence of medieval occupation, in the form of rubbish pits, was also found, but much of the site had been disturbed by the construction of the Corn Exchange in the 19th century.
Archaeology in Bath, Excavations at the New Royal Baths (the Spa), and Bellott's Hospital 1998-1999
Prior to the building of the new Bath Spa, in the centre of the World Heritage City of Bath, excavations were carried out to record the archaeological remains threatened by its construction. Evidence was recovered of the presence and perhaps the rituals of mesolithic hunter-gatherers, hitherto unknown official Roman buildings of the first and second centuries and some indication of activity in the late Saxon and medieval periods. An important part of the dig was a programme of geoarchaeological research to study the microstructure of the soils excavated with a view to understanding the activities that led to their formation.
From Studium to Station
Rewley Abbey and Rewley Road Station, Oxford
by Julian Munby, Andy Simmonds, Ric Tyler and Dave Wilkinson.
(Oxford Archaeology Occasional Paper No 15)
This report presents the results of over 40 years of excavation, historic building survey and documentary research that have been carried out by Oxford Archaeology and others at the site of the Cistercian house of Rewley, a chantry founded in 1280. It became an abbey and studium providing accommodation for monks studying at the university, and can therefore claim to be one of Oxford’s earliest colleges. The railway station that subsequently occupied the site in 1851 followed the design of the Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition, and was the last surviving representative of that internationally important building.
isbn 978 0 904220 40 0
A Middle Saxon Estate Centre and other archaeological remains: Excavations at Kings Meadow Lane, Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, 1993-2003
Alan Hardy and Bethan Charles
How did Middle Saxon kings govern their estates? How did the mechanism of early forms of regional administration work? A spectacular site on the outskirts of Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire has demonstrated that archaeology can add significantly to the debate.
Between 1993 and 2003, Oxford Archaeology undertook a major programme of survey and excavation on the outskirts of the town, uncovering extensive remains dating from the Middle Bronze Age to the late medieval period.
This volume deals with the Anglo-Saxon and medieval remains, and concentrates on a large 8th-century complex of enclosures and buildings, along with other structures including a large malting oven. It is argued that this represents the infrastructure of a purpose-built tribute centre for a royal estate. The character of the material evidence indicates that wide variety of produce came into complex and was then redistributed rather than consumed on site.
The centre administered judicial as well as economic affairs. Evidence of the human remains from an execution site was found - some of it possibly linked to the sudden demise of the tribute centre at the beginning of the 9th century.
In addition, the evidence of a well-preserved Reduced Ware pottery manufactory is an indicator of the later role of the area as an industrial estate of the medieval borough of Higham Ferrers.