Tour of the Marcham/Frilford Excavations (2002)

'Geophysics' plots  had been used as a guide to where to put the trenches. The owner of the land for the last 25 years is interested in archaeology so has not deep ploughed this field.

The first trench we saw (no 2) showed how valuable this has been in preserving the evidence of former buildings. Foundations of what look like timber-framed buildings are only about a foot below the surface here. Some late Roman coins have been found and visitors from the University of London are trying to date the findings. These buildings were large and possibly were built either side of a 'sacred way'.

In another trench nearer to the River Ock, circular pits and other Iron Age features had been found lying beneath Roman Deposits showing that this site had probably been used since the 6th or 7th centuries B.C. The excavators had been hoping to find some pottery of a distinctive pattern known as 'All Cannings Cross' which dates from the beginning of the Iron Age. A lot of this pattern had been found at both Uffington and Alfred's Castles, but there was none here, it does not seem to have travelled North of the Ridgeway.

A third trench had located the substantial stone foundations of another large building along the 'sacred way'. This building will be excavated further next year.

Dr Lock commented that our visit came at an exciting time. Last year the excavators had thought that the large circular ditch was a games arena where soldiers from a nearby camp were entertained. However, the site is not near any large centre of population, no camp has been found, there is no evidence of benches for the audience and the bank does not seem high enough for people to sit on to watch games in the centre of the arena. This year further excavations have revealed a stone wall curving round as shown in the image Some painted plaster had been found still adhering to the wall in places, in others it had fallen off and was lying on the ground. A few large steps had been found leading to a flat surface at the bottom as if this had been a sacred pool. A further trench in the bottom had become damp showing there may have been a spring at this point to feed the pool. There is also evidence for a drainage ditch running from the 'pool' towards the nearby River Ock. So it looks as if this whole field was occupied by a set of temple buildings associated with this pool. They will be doing further excavations at this site next year in the hope of confirming their currents ideas.

Kate Crennell