Early Thame : Archaeological Investigations 2015 Volume 2

Early Thame: Archaeological Investigations at Oxford Road, Thame, Oxfordshire 2015 (Hardback)

Volume 2: The Roman and Saxon periods

Excavations by Oxford Cotswold Archaeology (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.

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.