Gill Hey

A rich prehistoric landscape was unexpectedly revealed on the Thames floodplain during investigations in advance of gravel extraction in the parishes of Yarnton and Cassington. This fascinating study examines this 2500-year settlement history and its changing landscape context on the gravel islands, silted up river channels and adjacent gravel terrace. The strength of the narrative derives from the longevity of occupation, but also the ability to combine and compare a suite of evidence related to house construction, burial practices, pit digging, craft activity, farming strategies, and interaction and exchange with nearby and distant communities. The earliest evidence for more than transient occupation was the construction of a substantial, rectangular post-built house at the beginning of the Neolithic (c 3800 cal BC); traces of midden activity, pit digging and cremation burial were also found, as well as a small, circular early Neolithic house dated to c 3600 cal BC. The volume then traces the changing character of settlement through a period of frequent but short-lived occupation events in the middle and late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age, a time when ceremonial monuments were constructed and burials were made, to more permanent settlement in the early to middle Bronze Age. Later Bronze Age settlement was focused on small circular and oval houses surrounded by evidence for domestic activity, perhaps representing single generation households.

The Solent-Thames region, comprising Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, is a recent combination of counties which provide a north-south transect across Central Southern England, and offer fresh insights into the past. Drawing upon county assessments, and written by eminent period specialists, this volume presents an overview of the current state of archaeological knowledge within this region from Palaeolithic times to the present day. This region contains some of the most important sites in England: the remarkable early Mesolithic settlements along the Kennet valley, the hillfort at Danebury and its environs, the Roman town of Silchester and the cemetery of Lankhills, and the Saxon and medieval towns and cities of Southampton, Winchester and Oxford. Portsmouth houses arguably the most important ships in the naval history of Britain, and includes the best-preserved Tudor warship, the Mary Rose. Blenheim, seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, is a World Heritage site of international renown. Following the assessments are a series of research aims and priorities both for specific periods and for wider cross-period themes, an indispensable tool for anyone contemplating research in this region. It is one of a series covering the whole of England published with the support of English Heritage.

A review of the rich and diverse evidence for understanding past climate and environmental change in the Thames Valley, and the effects on plant and animal populations and the challenges and opportunities these presented to early humans. Part 1 of this volume covers the Pleistocene, the epoch of the Ice Ages, in an integrated review of the geological, palaeontological and archaeological data for the last half million years and more. Part 2 takes up the story from the beginning of the Holocene, the warm period in which we are still living, which began around 11,500 years ago. The authors review the evidence for early hunter-gatherer populations in the Mesolithic, the gradually increasing impact of humans in the region in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age and their rich social lives and belief systems. Much of the evidence has been recovered during extensive gravel quarrying. The volume is excellently illustrated with colour and line illustrations and maps.