Excavations at Kingshill North, Cirencester, Gloucestershire

An excavation by Oxford Archaeology in 2008 at
Kingshill North, to the north-east of Cirencester,
Gloucestershire, uncovered evidence for prehistoric
occupation. The earliest evidence comprised storage
pits dating to the late Neolithic period. Some of the
features contained Grooved Ware pottery decorated
with exceptionally rare ‘lattice lozenge’ motifs, pig
bones suggestive of feasting, bone pins and awls,
worked flint imported from some distance, and
fragments of Cornish axe heads. The pit groups
point to a community able to mobilise a wide range
of resources and dispose of them in a highly visible
way. The fieldwork uncovered two Beaker burials,
one enclosed by a ring-ditch. The isotopes from the
individuals indicate that they were not local; one
individual came from the chalklands of eastern or
southern England, the other was from a more southwesterly
chalkland region. As such they fit within an
emerging picture of population mobility. Another
inhumation grave, dated to the middle Bronze Age,
was also recorded. More storage pits were dug
during the middle Iron Age. These were filled with
domestic waste, but there was evidence of structured
deposits in the form of crow or rook and dog
burials. The late Iron Age settlement comprised a
sequence of ditches which formed boundaries or
enclosures and surrounded structures and pits.
These were set within a pastoral landscape and areas
of grassland and meadows. Three human burials, all
interred in ditches, were also recorded. The settlement
was within the territory of the Dobunni, whose
centre was at nearby Bagendon, but the inhabitants
of Kingshill North did not benefit materially from
the proximity, and their focus remained local. The
settlement was abandoned by the late 1st century
AD, before or coincident with the establishment of
the Roman town of Corinium Dobunnorum,
although agricultural activity continued to a limited
extent through the Roman period, and there was a
single cremation burial dated between the late 1st
and mid 3rd century AD. The medieval and postmedieval
periods were represented by an agricultural
landscape of field boundaries and drainage
features.