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Excavations at Frilford

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

L. H. Dudley Buxton
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Extract

Excavations were carried out on the site by Mr. Akerman in 1864 and 1865 and in the two following years and by Dr. Rolleston, then Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, at various times between 1864 and 1868. The results of the excavations were embodied in papers published by this Society. He appears principally to have assisted at quarrying operations which were then in progress, but also to have searched one or two other small areas. No map of his excavation is extant, and according to his assistant William Hine, who is still alive, no map appears to have been made. The areas probably excavated by him are marked with a cross on figure 1.

Since that time a number of graves have fallen into the quarry, and scattered finds appear to have been made from time to time, some of which were examined by Professor Rolleston and after his death by Professor Moseley.

In the spring of 1920 an undergraduate society, the Oxford University Archaeological Society, was anxious to do some excavating and asked me to find a site and direct the work. By kind permission of Mr. Aldworth, the owner of the property, we were able to start at Frilford in the middle of the Hilary Term, and spent week-ends there during Term, and four days at the ends of both the Hilary and Trinity Terms. The labour was provided chiefly by junior but also by senior members of the University, and honorary members of the Society, especially Sir Arthur Evans, Mr. Balfour, and Mr. Leeds materially assisted the excavations by advice and personal visits. Mr. Leeds has helped me very much in the preparation of this paper. I am indebted to Professor Arthur Thomson both for his keen interest in the work and also for putting the resources of the Anatomical Department at my disposal.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , April 1921 , pp. 87 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1921

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References

page 87 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd Ser., iii, 136; Archaeologia, xlii, 417; xlv, 405.

page 89 note 1 Archaeological Journal, liv, 340–54.

page 94 note 1 Peake, H. and Hooton, E. A., Journ. Royal Anthrop. Institute, xlv (1915), 92.Google Scholar

page 95 note 1 In order to test the question of racial differences observations have been made on some Oxfordshire villages. As far as our present evidence goes it would appear that the racial type existing in Frilford in Romano-British times still survives round Oxford to-day. One or two of the villages show less variation than the Frilford material, but the general type has certainly not changed. The bones from Frilford do, however, show some differences which are not to be observed in the modern bones. These differences are of an anatomical character and refer to the leg and ankle. Some of the Frilford bones of this part of the body can hardly be distinguished from modern; others again do differ very considerably, and form the ‘primitive’ type referred to above. All the bones suggest evidence of considerable muscularity, and some of the men probably possessed a fine physique. On the whole, however, as far as our present evidence goes—all the bones have not yet been thoroughly examined—apart from the habit of squatting and eating hard food the old inhabitants of Frilford do not appear to have differed intrinsically from the modern people of the neighbourhood.

page 96 note 1 Journ. Royal Anthrop. Inst., xlv, 112, pl. iii.