Earlier Neolithic Pits and Late Iron Age Settlement at Littleworth Road, Benson, Oxfordshire (Paperback)

This volume details the results of an archaeological excavation in advance of a new housing development on the northern outskirts of Benson, close to the River Thames in Oxfordshire.

The earliest finds were a cluster of four earlier Neolithic pits, two of which were radiocarbon dated to c. 3600?3500 cal BC. They contained a range of flint and pottery finds with charred hazelnut shells but no cereals, along with part of the skull of a child. The Bronze Age was represented by a single Middle Bronze Age pit and a scatter of residual pottery finds.

The main findings dated to the Late Iron Age, when ditches were dug marking enclosures and other boundaries. A rich grave was located outside the enclosures: it (and the nearest enclosure ditch) contained a pottery assemblage with an unexpectedly rich imported (Gallo-Belgic) contribution. Cut features within the enclosures were surprisingly few, suggesting that the site may have functioned as a part of the animal husbandry regime and any more intensively occupied areas were located elsewhere. Unusually, the Late Iron Age settlement did not continue in use into early Roman times. A little Saxon pottery and a Medieval trackway were also recorded.