• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Archaeology in Marlow NEWSLETTER Volume 11, Issue 6, December 2012 www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk Christmas Wishes Forthcoming Events All are invited to the Annual Quiz Thursday 21st February 2013 AiM Local National Trust Sites (don't worry, it’s not an archaeological quiz.) by Gary Marshall Thursday 13th December 8 p.m. Garden 8.00pm Garden Room, Liston Hall Room, Liston Hall, Marlow Thursday 21st March - ‘A Tour of Medieval Marlow’, a talk by Andy Free entry to the quiz, mulled wine, hot mince Ford pies and sausage rolls, soft drinks, nibbles in- cluded. 8.00pm Garden Room, Liston Hall Thursday 18th April - A chance to have a chat, some food, some drink ‘Excavations at Elizabeth House (soft) and mildly rummage your brain cells for the (St Johns College) Oxford’, (a answers. Neolithic henge, Medieval farm and Turn up on your own or with others and teams the victims of the St Brices' Day will be put together on the night - start thinking massacre?) by Steve Ford, TVAS. of good names for teams. 8.00pm Garden Room, Liston Hall th We will be selling tickets for the bumper raffle, Thursday 16 May - AIM’s AGM to be drawn at the end of the quiz. followed by ‘The Shottesbrooke Logboat’ So hope to see you there to start off the festive a talk by Steve Allen season. 8.00pm Garden Room, Liston Hall Any prizes for the raffle will be gratefully re- All AIM talks cost £2.50 for mem- ceived, if you have any items to donate please bers and £3.50 for non-members, contact Ann Pitwell 481792 or bring on the night. including refreshments. Hillforts of the Ridgeway by Emeritus Professor Gary Lock, Oxford University By Jeff Griffiths A large audience was attracted to this talk by Pro- historical continuity. Groups gathered at these fessor Lock on 25th October. The speaker places at particular times of the year as their co-directed the Hillforts of the Ridgeway Project forefathers had done. which ran between 1994 and 2000. Two of the three hillforts covered in his talk, Uffington and Hillforts stretched right across Europe but they Segsbury Camp, have already been published with are not necessarily defensive structures. the report on the third, Alfred’s Castle, to follow. People would employ them in different ways for The Ridgeway links these three sites which are their own particular purposes. Hillforts in this part of a series of hillforts on the northern edge of area fit into this social template. While the three the chalk uplands. By the time of the Iron Age the sites may at first appear similar, excavation has uplands would probably have undergone extensive revealed that each is one is distinctive, as the tree clearance - wood being an important commod- speaker explained. ity - while the boggy lowland would have retained large wooded areas. Reference was made to English Heritage's Na- tional Mapping Programme (NMP) which aims to enhance the understanding of past human settle- ment by providing information on all archaeological sites and landscapes visible on aerial photographs. The Ridgeway area, a much researched region, has had a continuity of use between 1000BC and the 5th century AD with its occupants continually reusing its resources. Professor Lock explained The White Horse Hill complex encompasses the concept of ‘landscape locales as historical round barrows, a linear ditch and the chalk mnemonics’, i.e. even before the invention of writ- figure White Horse as well as the hillfort. ing, generations of peoples recognised that there were particular areas associated with The evidence suggests that Uffington Castle hillfort was constructed at the end of an earlier linear ditch in the 7th century BC with a single circuit of box rampart and opposing eastern and western entrances. In the 4th century BC the rampart was remodeled and the eastern en- trance was blocked. There was very little evi- dence for activity within the enclosure and it was concluded that the hillfort was used for pe- riodic ceremonial gatherings associated with the White Horse. The hillfort was re-used and remodelled in Romano- British times, including for burial. By these times the White Horse could have been nearly 1,000 years old and it might have been its mythological attractions that drew people there, as is still the case today. 2 Hillforts of the Ridgeway continued The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk which has been shown to date back some 3,000 years by means of OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) carried out following archaeological investigations in 1994. Segsbury Camp or Segsbury Castle, about 8 miles away, has an extensive ditch and ramparts with four gateways. It had round houses with pits in the middle dating from the 6th to 2nd centu- ries BC which had fallen into disuse by the Roman period. Excavation carried out in 1996 and 1997 suggests that it was a communal centre for various activities, including sheep manage- ment and exchange, which might also suggest religious offerings. Alfred’s Castle is a small enclosure that lies a mile south of the Ridgeway. It has a large enclo- sure attached started around 6th century BC. The hillfort was established within a series of late Bronze Age linear ditches and revealed much evidence for occupation within it. In the late first century AD a Romano-British farmhouse was built within the abandoned prehistoric enclosure. The speaker also described Banjo enclosures, a number of which are found in this area. They are so named be- cause they consist of a small round area with a long en- trance track leading inwards from one direction, giving them the appearance in plan of frying pans or banjos. The enclosure is defined by a low bank and ditch with the earthworks at the end of the track sometimes turned out- wards, creating a funnel effect. Once believed to be small farming settlements occupied between around 400 and 100 BC, the lack of finds relating to settlement associated with them means that they are currently thought to be sea- Professor Gary Lock, Oxford University sonal ritual centres where feasting occurred. For information on the Hillforts of the Ridgeway see http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/HOR1.html WELCOME NEW MEMBERS Peter Barnett Lyndy Boorah Feliks Bartkiewicz Ron Symington Hilary Symington 3 Warren Wood Update By John Laker Our last visit inner enclosure, one between test pits 8 this year to and 7 and one between 6 and 8. These Warren Wood excavations should give us more infor- took place on mation as to both the extent of medieval Remembrance buildings and activities, as well as the ex- Sunday. Al- tent of any Iron Age occupation. though coldish, For more info’ on Warren Wood go to the weather www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk and was bright and click on ‘blog’. sunny. Four AIM members (see three in photo’) helped by inserting pegs and poles on the bank of the outer enclosure every 7/8 me- tres. Measurements were then recorded on AIM's Total Station at these points and at one metre distances up and down Trench 9. On the hachure drawing to the right, the (red) dots show where we recorded the bank . The area where the dots and the ha- chures do match up, is in the north-east corner. This part of the bank is almost in- visible to the naked eye and either version may be accurate. Trench 9 is still not fully excavated and further work will have to wait until 2013. In the meantime the trench has been cleaned up and we have replaced the hazard tape around the trench for added safety. Looking forward to 2013, we already have a plan, which we have forwarded to the Bucks County Archaeologist. Our inten- tion is to excavate two more test pits in the COMPETITION What is the greatest distance, depicted on a sign post, or milestone, within the town of Marlow? Courtesy of Gerry Platten The answer will be published in the February newsletter. 4 ‘Ad Chicksands Per Omnibus’ A Tour of the Medmenham Collection and Wrest Park There we were stood in a line clutching our photo The existence of the Medmenham Collection is due ID and faced with an armed military guard. A less substantially to the enthusiasm of Medmenham Club likely looking bunch of terrorists you could hardly members which comprises serving and retired per- imagine but rules are rules especially when sonnel associated with this discipline. We were well you’re visiting the Defence Intelligence and Se- served by our guide, Mike Mockford, who’d worked curity Centre. It was October 6th and we’d arrived himself at RAF Medmenham in the post-war years. In at Chicksands, just south of Bedford, formerly an April 1941 a RAF photographic interpretation unit RAF station. Our none too secret mission was to moved to Danesfield House at Medmenham as its view the Medmenham Collection kept there. This previous location at Wembley was short of space. covers the history of military aerial photographic During 1942 and 1943 the unit gradually expanded interpretation and imagery analysis from the time and was involved in the planning stages of practically of World War One up to the present day. Most every operation of the war and in every aspect of in- readers will be familiar with the vital wartime role telligence. By 1945 the daily intake of material aver- performed at what is now the Danesfield House aged 25,000 negatives and 60,000 prints. By VE-day luxury hotel and was once RAF Medmenham.

Load more

  10

Copy Link