Pilgrims Way, ARC PIL 98
Oxford Archaeology (South), 2004. (updated 2017) https://doi.org/10.5284/1044741. How to cite using this DOI
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 1823
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1044741
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
The group of excavated sites uncovered evidence for settlement occupation in the Neolithic period (c. 4000 BC – 2000 BC), possibly the middle Bronze Age (c. 1750 BC – 1150 BC), and the transitional period between the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age (c. 900 BC – 600 BC). There is evidence for peripheral settlement activity and ritual use of the landscape in the late Iron Age, including a possible post-hole structure, cremation deposits and animal burials. Agricultural features including field boundaries of various periods, indistinct post-hole enclosures of the late Iron Age and early Roman periods (c. 100 BC – 200 AD), and an early medieval corn drier (c.1100 AD – 1300 AD), were also found. The information below is centred on the findings from Pilgrim's Way only.
Early/ middle Bronze Age
A sub-rectangular posthole structure to the south-east of the Pilgrim’s Way site has been tentatively ascribed to the Bronze Age on the basis of it.s form, and pottery retrieved from adjacent features.
Late Iron Age/ early Romano-British
By the late Iron Age or early Roman period there seems to have been a significant settlement shift, to the south-east of the Pilgrim’s Way. There is no clear evidence for a settlement of this date, but several dispersed posthole structures and alignments, cremations, pits and animal burials have been found at the Pilgrim’s Way and West of Boarley Farm sites, probably indicating occupation on or near the sites.
Medieval
The medieval features consist of trackways, including the Pilgrim’s Way and a ploughlevelled hollow way running north-south across the Pilgrim’s Way site. Other medieval features comprised a corn-drying kiln found on the Pilgrim’s Way site, which utilised sarsen fragments in its construction, and possibly a human burial found next to the Pilgrim’s Way. A section excavated through the Pilgrim’s Way failed to identify any trackway surfaces earlier than the medieval period.
