ANGLO-SAXON OXFORDSHIRE

Neolithic and Bronze Age Oxford

There is some evidence for human activity in the vicinity of Oxford prior to the Iron Age:

• Prehistoric material has been found at Christ Church. A sherd of Beaker pottery and flint flakes and blades have been found at Church Street.
• Flint flakes were found at Littlegate.
• Beaker pottery, animal bone, flint flakes and the skeleton of a young child were found in a pit to the west of the city centre.
• Possible ard or plough marks have also been recorded in association with an early Bronze Age gold strip.
• Three other Beaker burials are known from North Oxford.
• Neolithic pits with flint have recently been found in the University Science area.

It seems that during the early Bronze Age, Oxford was a focus of ritual activity, since cropmarks have indicated a number of barrows and a possible cursus in the University Parks area of the city. A number of barrows have also been excavated in this area. Barrows have also been identified in the vicinity of Beaumont Street. This barrow cemetery is part of a concentration of such cemeteries along the Upper Thames Valley.

There may also have been a ford on the River Thames in the Bronze Age, if not earlier, although there is little evidence for this idea.