SUMMARY

Excavations to the north-east of Wantage (formerly Berks.) uncovered an Iron Age settlement that was established in the eighth or seventh century BC. Eleven roundhouses, variously defined by postholes and penannular ditches, dated to the earliest or early Iron Age. A total of fifteen roundhouses defined by penannular ditches dated to the middle Iron Age, alongside further settlement features. Activity appears to have diminished during the late Iron Age before the site was significantly reorganised early in the Roman period when two rectilinear enclosures and minor subsidiary enclosures were established. These enclosures were recut multiple times throughout the following centuries and the organisation of the site remained remarkably consistent until its abandonment at the end of the fourth century AD. Corndryers dating to the middle and late Roman periods suggest a focus on cereal processing. One early Anglo-Saxon sunken-featured building was discovered, probably dating to the sixth or seventh century AD. The site was cultivated in the later medieval period, signified by the presence of numerous furrows, and a trackway of late fifteenth- to sixteenth-century date was found to extend southwards towards Wantage.