Abstract: |
In 1995 a second phase of excavations was undertaken by Oxford Archaeological Unit at Reading Business Park in advance of development. This volume reports on the evidence they found for occupation, dating to the Neolithic, Bronze Age and medieval periods. The Neolithic features included an unusual segmented ring ditch, and a number of pits and postholes. The ring ditch was radiocarbon dated to the middle to late Neolithic, and an interesting flint assemblage from all features on the site was dated mainly to the later Neolithic. A field system, composed of rectangular boundary ditches, was laid out in the area prior to the establishment of a Late Bronze Age settlement. The evidence for the Late Bronze Age settlement included five roundhouses, and a number of post-built structures. The excavators also found numerous deposits of burnt flint that were made in one area in the Later Bronze Age, and over time these grew into a substantial and unusually large elongated burnt mound. The authors discuss the origin of these deposits, together with the management of the overall landscape in the Later Bronze Age. Includes specialist reports on the worked flint, earlier prehistoric pottery, later prehistoric pottery, medieval pottery, fired clay, worked stone, shale bracelet, worked bone assemblage, worked wood, animal bone, human skeletal assemblage, charred plant remains, pollen analysis of a Bronze Age waterhole, wood charcoal, and palaeochannel soils, sediments and hydrology. |