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 Here historical documents add to the account of the site and preserved the names of some of the farm’s recent inhabitants.

The cemetery was excavated in its entirety and contained the remains of around 300 individuals. Its form is shown to have many characteristics in common with other cemeteries of this period in the western British Isles, including the extended, supine posture of the deceased in simple earth-cut graves largely aligned in a west/east orientation. There were a limited number and range of grave accompaniments. Peculiarities included a concentration of intercutting burials within a small central rectangle, with the later re-use of this space for the deposition of fragments of carved stone, followed by the construction here of a wooden building. The deposition of seashells with a number of the burials appears to be a rite so far unique to this community. The stratigraphic sequence allied to radiocarbon dates on 51 individuals has enabled an unusually refined chronology, showing that the cemetery was used from the early 5th to the later 7th centuries. Measurements of the isotopes of strontium, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur in various combinations from a selection of individuals provides insights into aspects of origin, movement and diet. Mitochondrial DNA has provided information on the maternal lineage of 44 individuals, some of whom were buried in the same grave as others of the same lineage. Material remains were sparse but provide insights into the burial practices at this time.

In the second millennium BC, mining for copper ore on the Great Orme, Wales, created one of Europe’s largest surviving prehistoric copper mines. The ore from the mine was smelted into metal that was cast and worked into the rich variety of copper and bronze objects synonymous with the Bronze Age in Britain and Europe.This book presents an original synthesis and reinterpretation of the complex prehistoric archaeology of the Great Orme mine. It uses previously unpublished data in a novel and comprehensive analysis to determine where, when and how mining took place at this landmark site during the Bronze Age.The author draws on a wealth of information on the archaeology of the contemporary landscape and practices of metal production and working to examine the social nature of prehistoric mining. Observations are offered and conclusions drawn about who participated in mining; the character of social relations at the mine; the relationship between mining and identity; and how mining for copper ore shaped the miners’ worldview.Well supported by the evidence and embedded in contemporary theoretical discussions of Bronze Age social life, this significant study establishes an important research agenda for ongoing work at the Great Orme mine and makes a substantial contribution to broader debates about the nature of Bronze Age society. It offers for the first time a fully contextualised interpretation of Bronze Age mining in Britain from the perspective that it was a fundamentally social activity. Community, Technology and Tradition is for anyone interested in prehistoric mining and metallurgy, the British Bronze Age and the archaeology of past lives.

The archaeological excavations in advance of A14 Road Improvement Scheme in Cambridgeshire are among the biggest and most complex ever undertaken in the UK, revealing important archaeology of prehistoric, Roman, early medieval and medieval date.The fifty finds in this book have been chosen for the stories they tell us. These artefacts are often the only evidence for many of the thousands of people who lived here before us. Some stand out as beautiful or rare, treasured heirlooms left as grave goods for the dead. Others tell us about ancient industry, and the lives of ordinary people from prehistory to today. Between them, we get a glimpse into the diversity of Cambridgeshire’s ancient past, and the vast scale of the A14 scheme.

In 1979, a pipe trench at the military airbase RAF Lakenheath in the historic parish of Eriswell, Suffolk, revealed the presence of possible inhumation graves of the Early Anglo-Saxon period not far from the group of 33 burials excavated in the 1950s and published as the cemetery of Little Eriswell. Extensive redevelopment starting in the late 1990s led to the excavation of what appears to be a remarkable group of three discrete but contemporary burial grounds in close proximity, here labelled the West, Central and East sites — the latter including the Little Eriswell graves. While it is not certain that the Central and East burial grounds are fully separate, these two areas do differ markedly in layout and focus and in aspects of grave furnishing. Burial began in the West site with cremation around the middle of the 5th century. All three burial grounds were used for inhumation from the second half of the 5th to the late 6th century. For a further century, only the West site remained in use; this site was abandoned in the late 7th century when burial commenced at a ‘Middle Anglo-Saxon’ cemetery 300m to the south at Lord’s Walk. By the late 6th century the size of the burying population had apparently fallen by as much as 80%, from a hundred or more to maybe only twenty. The quality of the archaeological evidence allows for detailed examination and reconstruction of burial practice in terms of grave structure and how the bodies were laid in them. Soil conditions create some variance in skeletal preservation, but generally good survival reveals a naturally structured community, and allows for observation of its pathologies. Isotope and pioneering aDNA analyses identify an essentially local population but with one early female grave that is credibly that of a 5th-century immigrant from across the North Sea, and also demonstrating cross-generational descent within the community. The grave goods illustrate social differentiation, primarily by sex and age although exceptionally richly furnished and elaborately constructed graves such as the horse and ‘warrior’ burial embody additional status differentials. A series of expert scientific analyses have been targeted at revealing how this community made use of the principal resources available to it; how it could live and function in this topographical niche at this period. It is clearly demonstrated that there is a very solid foundation in all of the evidence from this site for continuing specialised research, not least as new techniques of analysis and research perspectives develop.

Silchester (Calleva) experienced major disruption in the late first century A.D. as the Iron Age oppidum was transformed into the Roman city responsible for the administration of the civitas of the Atrebates. Aligned on the cardinal points, a rectilinear street grid was laid across the settlement replacing the late Iron Age network of streets and lanes oriented north-west/south-east and north-east/south-west. While the pre-existing property boundaries within Insula IX were retained there was a total re-build within them. The excavated area contained one complete property and fragments of three of its neighbours. Rather than conform to the new grid all the buildings were constructed at 45 degrees to it, reasserting the late Iron Age orientations. The timber-framed buildings within the complete property consisted of a row of three — a rectangular kitchen, a town-house and a roundhouse — separated by a yard from a re-built taberna, also diagonal to the street on which it fronted. The surgical and writing instruments associated with the circular building suggested it functioned as a healer’s and/or teacher’s house. This volume completes the publication of the excavations in Insula IX, 1997–2014.

The Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project (WallCAP) conducted a series of fieldwork projects along the Hadrian’s Wall corridor between 2019 and 2021. The work focused on sites that were poorly understood or under particular threat and aimed to improve understanding of them so they could be better managed in future. At several sites excavation was followed by conservation and consolidation work. This volume brings together the final reports of these excavations, at seven Roman sites in the Wall corridor. As the sites were spread along the length of the Wall the character and afterlife of the Wall in very different landscape locations could be compared. An assessment of the Vallum at Heddon on the Wall identified how earthwork archaeology survived in a sloped, heavily ploughed landscape. Three excavations investigated the condition of the stone Wall curtain at Port Carlisle, Walltown Crags, and Steel Rigg and Cats Stairs. At each site the Wall builders had responded to the demands of the local terrain and made use of local resources. It is also clear how at each site the Wall had a different post-Roman history. Excavations at the bridging point of the Cam Beck revealed for the first time how the Wall was carried over a ‘minor’ watercourse, and discovered traces of the Turf Wall. Small buildings were also identified just south of the Wall as it approached the bridge. At Corbridge Roman town, excavations on the northern periphery of the settlement demonstrated that from early in its history the most northerly town in Europe was of considerable extent. The area investigated showed that, even at the edge of town, shops lined the roads alongside well-appointed houses with bustling yards. Later on in the Roman period the town contracted behind walls and cremation burials were inserted by the road.Each site is reported on independently, presenting the primary data for each investigation. The volume concludes with a synthetic analysis of what the results of these excavations together reveal about Hadrian’s Wall, considering, amongst other things, construction details and the decay and destruction of the monument in the centuries following Roman occupation.

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.

A few scatters of Mesolithic and Neolithic flint were found across the development area. Slightly more extensive evidence for Neolithic occupation was represented by a small number of pits from which flint-tempered Neolithic pottery, worked flint, charred plant remains and animal bone were recovered. During the later Bronze Age and Iron Age the first permanent settlements were established. They were characterized by post-built circular structures, pits and cremation burials. Settlement began in the river valley and the western edge of the clay plateau but during the Iron Age settlement shifted onto the clay plateau with eh creation of a five-sided enclosure. By the Late Iron Age and Roman period a farmstead and managed fields were established. This farmstead has been defined as a complex-type farmstead and seems to have been involved in the large-scale production of spelt. Limited evidence was identified for Saxon activity but a few features, including the remains of a tree-lined avenue, may have been associated with the 17th century Hadham and Wickham Halls which were owned by the Capel family. This volume describes the archaeological remains as well as the artefacts and ecofactual material recovered from the excavations.

This book is concerned with the origins, uses and subsequent histories of monuments. It emphasises the time scales illustrated by these structures, and their implications for archaeological research. It is concerned with the archaeology of Western and Northern Europe, with an emphasis on structures in Britain and Ireland, and the period between the Mesolithic and the Viking Age. It begins with two famous groups of monuments and introduces the problem of multiple time scales. It also considers how they influence the display of those sites today – they belong to both the present and the past. Monuments played a role from the moment they were created, but approaches to their archaeology led in opposite directions. They might have been directed to a future that their builders could not control. These structures could be adapted, destroyed, or left to decay once their significance was lost. Another perspective was to claim them as relics of a forgotten past. In that case they had to be reinterpreted.The first part of this book considers the rarity of monumental structures among hunter-gatherers, and the choice of building materials for Neolithic houses and tombs. It emphasises the difference between structures whose erection ended the use of significant places, and those whose histories could extend into the future. It also discusses ‘megalithic astronomy’ and ancient notions of time. Part Two is concerned with the reuse of ancient monuments and asks whether they really were expressions of social memory. Did links with an ‘ancestral past’ have much factual basis? It contrasts developments during the Beaker phase with those of the early medieval period. The development of monumental architecture is compared with the composition of oral literature.

Following its appearance, arguably in Orkney in the 32nd century cal BC, Grooved Ware soon became widespread across Britain and Ireland, seemingly replacing earlier pottery styles and being deposited in contexts as varied as simple pits, passage tombs, ceremonial timber circles and henge monuments. As a result, Grooved Ware lies at the heart of many ongoing debates concerning social and economic developments at the end of the 4th and during the first half of the 3rd millennia cal BC.Stemming from the 2022 Neolithic Studies Group autumn conference, and following on from Cleal and MacSween’s 1999 NSG volume on Grooved Ware, this book presents a series of papers from researchers specializing in Grooved Ware pottery and the British and Irish Neolithic, offering both regional and thematic perspectives on this important ceramic tradition. Chapters cover the development of Grooved Ware in Orkney as well as the timing and nature of its appearance, development, and subsequent demise in different regions of Britain and Ireland. In addition, thematic papers consider what Grooved Ware can contribute to understandings of inter-regional interactions during the earlier 3rd millennium cal BC, the possible meaning of Grooved Ware’s decorative motifs, and the thorny issue of the validity and significance of the various Grooved Ware sub-styles.The book will be of great value not only to archaeologists and students with a specific interest in Grooved Ware pottery but also to those with a more general interest in the development of the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland.

Now hard to believe, Eilean Donan Castle was once one of the largest castles in the west Highlands, known to have featured seven towers, the remains of which lie buried on the island. This book provides a refreshed view of the lost medieval guise of the castle, of its 13th-century origins and form, and of who was responsible for building it, allowing the castle to be positioned accurately in the complex dynamics of powerholding and display of the earls of Ross and associated militarised kindreds of the west Highlands during six centuries of change up to the castle’s destruction in 1719. A new history and the details of the below-ground archaeology allow us to see the lost medieval castle in our mind’s eye 500 years after it vanished. Focusing on the wealth of archaeological material unearthed during the campaign shows the castle hosted master craftspeople including goldsmiths, shipwrights and hereditary swordsmiths. Exquisite personal items, decorative mail armour and weapons, musical instruments, gaming pieces, imported pottery and animal bones bring the castle and its inhabitants back to life.

Excavations between 2016–2018 revealed a series of structures that were re-organised and rebuilt over time, which culminated in a stone-built winged corridor villa in the mid to late 4th century AD. Wings were added to the buildings and a portico at the front opened out onto a courtyard. The outer courtyard was flanked by ancillary buildings, one of which contained a hypocaust and another a small bath suite. Finds included a rare copper alloy figurative lamp with probable foreign origins, a lion mask and a range of pottery, glass worked stone and bone. Environmental remains indicate a mixed arable and pastoral agricultural economy that supported its inhabitants and may have produced a surplus. Wood for fuel and other purposes was obtained from surrounding hedges and copses.

Despite extensive archaeological investigations in Norwich over many decades, its Middle Saxon origins as Norvic/Northwic remain obscure and elusive, and its Anglo-Scandinavian aspects have seen relatively little recognition until recently. This report focuses on five excavations in the historic core of the settlement. Lying on either side of the River Wensum, linked by a crossing, they revealed archaeological remains of the 7th to 11th centuries. The excavations were significant in revealing in-situ archaeological features of Middle Saxon date, along with a range of contemporary finds including a dispersed ‘coin hoard’ of the late 7th or early 8th century, sufficient to add weight to the hypothesis of an early trading centre.Triggered by the Danish invasion of East Anglia of AD 865, a burh to the north of the river enclosed the earlier mercantile centre and its river crossing during the early 10th century. Sites further south lay within Conesford – again, an area with Middle Saxon origins. It formed part of Norwich’s second burh which was enclosed in the 10th or early 11th century. Much of the archaeological evidence finds parallels at other Anglo-Scandinavian centres of the period. Of particular note are the different techniques of building construction exhibited on either side of the river, including sunken-floored buildings of urban form, one of which held the remains of a fishing net.This new analysis provides the opportunity to review the pre-Norman settlement at Norwich and its relationship to the river, trade and overseas contacts, agricultural activity and the fishing industry.

Extensive archaeological investigations were undertaken over two decades in Hinxton, south Cambridgeshire by OA East on behalf of the Wellcome Trust. The excavated areas lay in the Cam valley, a ‘borderland zone’ crossed by Icknield Way; the ridgeway route and the River Cam providing natural corridors of movement and communication. Hinxton’s post-glacial valley landscape of indigenous woodland, streams and seasonally flooded pools attracted Palaeolithic and Mesolithic communities to the area. Fills of one pool yielded a Terminal Palaeolithic ‘Long/Bruised Blade’ assemblage of national significance. Tree clearance to permit exploitation of the fertile valley sides began in the Early Neolithic. The increasingly ‘ritual’ or ceremonial significance of the landscape is indicated by a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age shaft containing a substantial assemblage of worked flint and Beaker pottery. During the later prehistoric and Early Roman periods, two square enclosures – the largest related to mortuary practices – were followed by a small timber shrine. Burial of selected individuals, both in graves and as disarticulated remains, occurred sporadically throughout prehistory. Agricultural exploitation of the valley seems to have been almost continuous from the Early Neolithic until the Middle Roman period, after which the land lay largely fallow. Conquest period large corrals linked to major trackways potentially demonstrate stock management on a scale commensurate with supplying the nearby fort and Roman town at Great Chesterford. The immediate landscape was not resettled until the Anglo-Saxon period. Post-Roman activity at Hinxton is the subject of a companion volume (Part II).