Excavations at Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire. Volume 1 The Neolithic and Bronze Age Monument Complex Oxford Archaeological Unit Thames Valley Landscapes Volume 11

Area excavations conducted in 1983-5 in advance of housing construction over
the W end of the early Bronze Age barrow cemetery at Barrow Hills, close to the
Abingdon causewayed enclosure, yielded evidence for ceremonial and funerary
use of the complex from the earlier Neolithic to at least the middle Bronze Age.
Among the ring ditches known from air photographs were Neolithic pits, Neolithic
and Beaker flat graves, pond barrows and a linear early Bronze Age cremation
cemetery. The opportunity is taken to review earlier salvage excavations of barrows
in the E part of the cemetery, much of which has been quarried away. Together the
results of the previous excavations and the 1983-5 seasons make Barrow Hills one
of the most fully-excavated round barrow cemeteries in Britain. The whole provides
a conspectus of burial and other ritual spanning three thousand years, and a
continuous record of local landuse throughout this period.
A series of 52 radiocarbon dates provides a basis for detailed examination of the
phasing and layout ofvthe complex, and of the chronology of its artefacts. These
include elaborate later Neolithic pit groups, Beaker grave groups — one of which
yielded copper ornaments dated to the mid-third millennium cal BC, and 'Wessex
Culture' grave groups.
The complex is placed in the context of the topography and contemporary
archaeology of the immediate area, and is discussed in the context of regional,
British and European developments.