Neolithic to Saxon Social and environmental change at mount Farm Berinsfield, Dorchester-on-Thames

Mount Farm is a multiperiod cropmark site on the
Thames gravels north of Dorchester-on-Thames.
It was initially excavated by J N L Myres in 1933,
and this report covers more detailed work carried
out in 1977-8 prior to the destruction of most of
the site through gravel extraction. This established
a longer chronological sequence than had
previously been recognised, extending from the
early or middle Neolithic to the early Saxon
periods (3500 cal BC – cal AD 650) with all intervening-
periods at least sporadically represented
and the apparently continuous existence of a
farming community from the Iron Age until the
3rd century cal AD.
Aspects of interest include:
• Early/middle Neolithic and late Neolithic
domestic pits
• An oval barrow enclosing middle Neolithic
and beaker burials
• A Neolithic or Bronze Age post ring
• An early to middle Bronze Age ring ditch with
cremation and inhumation burials and small
quantities of domestic or feasting debris;
• A pit associated with burnt stone and charcoal
and a middle to late Bronze Age waterhole
• Part of an early or middle Bronze Age doubleditched
field system aligned on the barrow
• Early Iron Age ard cultivation marks
• Early Iron Age to late Roman settlement with
an unusually early network of paddocks or
fields that developed continuously from the
middle Iron Age through to the 2nd century
cal AD, including a succession of further
waterholes
• Traces of early Saxon settlement including two
wells, one using the remains of a wooden tub.
Mount Farm provides an unusually long, though
somewhat patchy sequence of environmental
evidence, and indications of the nature of a
relatively low-key site within the hinterland of a
series of major focal complexes in and around
Dorchester-on-Thames