White’s Lane, Radley, Oxfordshire

During September 2017 Oxford Archaeology undertook a trial trench
evaluation on land adjacent to White’s Lane, Radley, Oxfordshire. Trench 20
was excavated in a second phase of work in November 2017. The evaluation
trenches revealed prehistoric features in the south-eastern part of the site,
where geophysical survey had recorded a dense spread of anomalies. Two
postholes contained possible Neolithic pottery. Several other features were
dated to the Iron Age, including ditches forming three sides of an enclosure
visible in the geophysical survey. Within the area of this potential enclosure
were a number of pits and postholes, many yielding pottery sherds, fired clay
and animal bone fragments, suggesting domestic activity. A single piece of slag
may indicate ironworking. This activity represents the continuation of an Iron
Age settlement previously recorded immediately to the south. Later activity
within the evaluation site was represented by plough furrows and a modern
field boundary.