An archaeological excavation that took place in 2015 at Thame Meadows, an area of land in Thame, Oxfordshire, has achieved national importance. The findings are by far the most significant to have been discovered in the Thame Valley.
The dig, which preceded the building of 203 new homes on the site, was undertaken by Oxford Cotswold Archaeology (OCA). Their work revealed artefacts and evidence of continuous settlement ranging across 6,000 years, from the Early Neolithic, Bronze, Iron, Roman, and Early Medieval (Anglo Saxon) periods. These extraordinary findings can now be revealed to the public.
Amongst other finds, the OCA excavation revealed Early Neolithic pits and a three-circuit causewayed enclosure – possibly one of the largest known in the UK. Later prehistoric activity included an extensive Early Iron Age settlement, revealing structures and pits - some containing deposits of material involving pottery, animal remains and other finds. A small cemetery included the remains of at least 13 people – a reminder that these settlements were not just places of work and production but homes to real people.
Late Iron Age fields were replaced during the Early Roman period – the OCA field team found larger-scale land division related to agriculture, which was reflected in finds of millstones and corn driers.
In the 6th and 7th centuries AD, a settlement comprising thirteen sunken-featured buildings was established. They contained loom weights (used in textile weaving), telling of a community that featured hard-working weavers. In the Late Saxon period, a ditched enclosure revealed ovens that provided sustenance through crop drying and malting, as the town of Thame began to rise. These discoveries have revealed that a rich and layered history lies beneath the fields near modern Thame, with its agricultural roots still reflected in the landscape today.
The cataloguing of the many artefacts discovered by the OCA field team has taken a few years, but now at last they can be displayed to the public. An exhibition devoted to a range of the artefacts, A Day in the Life, is being held over the summer at Thame Museum, opening on Saturday 24th May. Chris Ellis, Senior Project Officer at OCA and co-director of the excavations, will be giving an illustrated talk about the findings at The Players Theatre, Thame on Sunday 25th May. He will explain why Thame Meadows was such an important site, describe the findings from each era, and outline how it is thought people lived in those times.
Chris commented, “In my 35 years as an archaeologist, the Thame excavations were a career highpoint, both for the surprises in the everyday discoveries as well as the sheer longevity and range of ancient community activities represented. To encounter this amount of archaeology on just one development site is almost unheard of, and the discoveries have sparked a great deal of interest among academics. What stood out for me especially was the discovery of a very large triple-ditched causewayed enclosure, built by one of the earliest farming communities of the Early Neolithic period.”
