Reconstructing a past landscape

: An investigation of prehistoric activity in the Middle Thames Valley from a study of the lithic evidence

Abstract

The Middle Thames Valley has experienced major developments in recent years, which in line with legislation have undergone archaeological investigation prior to building. The evidence gained from developer funded excavations to the south of Reading and in the Maidenhead to Windsor area have demonstrated that settlement, especially during the Bronze Age, was much greater than previously thought. However with recent changes in the Planning Policy, combined with cutbacks across all sectors of Local Government, funding for future developments will rely more heavily on Desktop Based Assessment for archaeology, with an emphasis on the entries available in the Historic Environments Records (HER) for planning decisions.

This highlights the risk to under-studied landscapes such as this area of South Oxfordshire, which because of its location, may in the future be under considerable pressure for development resulting in the loss of a landscape with a high level of archaeological potential. New research demonstrates that the extent of prehistoric activity, where the study has been carried out, is much greater than current records indicate. The results of the fieldwalking surveys and the subsequent analysis of the lithics collected, alongside museum archives, show that there is a significant quantity of worked flint dating from the Mesolithic through to the Bronze Age present in surface scatters of the fields closest to the river, this appears to diminish as the distance from the river gets greater. Cropmarks on the first river terrace above the floodplain within the study area, indicate a possible causewayed enclosure at Eye and Dunsden and lithics, which relate to the earlier Neolithic period, formed part of the assemblage from fieldwalking here. A geophysical survey revealed archaeological features present in the sub-soil corresponding to the cropmark.

The results of this research, carried out to the west of Henley-on-Thames, demonstrates the wealth of archaeology present as lithics in the sub-soil, which, when analysed, can contribute to our understanding of prehistoric activity in the landscape, north of the River Thames, during the Mesolithic through to the Later Bronze Age periods.

Date of Award	20 Nov 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Nick Thorpe (Supervisor) & Keith Wilkinson (Supervisor)