Tour of the Marcham/Frilford Excavations 2004

Excavations date back to the late 19th century when work at a nearby quarry revealed a cemetery.  In the 1930s a temple and underlying Iron Age structures were found.  The fascination of the site is the continuity and change it represents from the Iron Age through Romano-British to the Anglo-Saxons.  'A complex and mysterious site.'

This is the 4th year of the current series of excavations by The University of Oxford School of Archaeology, under the direction of Dr Gary Lock.  It fits in with the wider aims of an earlier project, the Hillforts of The Ridgeway, which explored sites on the downs.  The current series has uncovered an Amphitheatre area approximately 40 metres diameter with an inner arena, a Temple, shops, a large 4th century building, and numerous artefacts including ceramics, jewellery, coins and implements.  Excavations take place during only 4 weeks in July each year, as a training exercise for archaeology students.  Workers include students fulfilling part of their course work, mature students and volunteers.  At any time, there may be 50 to 100 people working on the site, organised into groups working in trenches under the supervision of post graduates.

On 27 July, a group of 19 people from Friends of The Ridgeway visited the site for a conducted tour of the excavations, and were shown round by Gilbert Oteyo and Chris Gosden. There is nothing to see above ground level, as features have been smoothed out since the Saxon period by ploughing and by intensive agriculture since WW2.  But below a foot of turf the structures start to emerge, mainly walls and floor surfaces, which could have been covered up for 1700 years.  Each area of interest is numbered, and its details recorded.  Any artefacts found are bagged and removed for further examination; one trench has revealed 350 items. 

This year, they are exploring the Temple boundary area, the shops outside the Temple wall, and the Amphitheatre area.  Structures outside the Temple wall indicate shops for serving pilgrims/travellers with food and drink.  Many walls and floor surfaces have been uncovered and flagons have been found indicating a 'high class wine bar'.   No significant animal bones or other evidence ofpermanent occupation has been found, indicating that people passed through rather than settled here.  In the amphitheatre area on the eastern side, a 10 foot deep trench has revealed a 4th century rubbish dump and drains from 55AD and 155AD, along with many water channels.  Many of the walls have been heavily robbed, but a well preserved wall of a new building has been found which will be further excavated next year.   In the eastern entrance to an arena area, a domed shaped floor has been uncovered, and 4 skeletons have been found nearby:  a man facing downwards (thought to be a punishment as his spirit could not exit his body through his mouth), a man on his back and 2 women, one with limbs in unusual positions;  all middle-aged and thought to be late Roman.  The skeletons have been removed for analysis and will be reburied later at the same site with a ceremony.

Janet Hierons