Summary

Early Bronze Age round barrow cemetery, now levelled to buried ring ditches visible as crop marks, and linear features (also crop marks).

Source: Historic England

Details

Early Bronze Age round barrow cemetery now levelled to buried ring ditches visible as crop marks and linear features (also crop marks).

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: eleven circular, one part-circular and two intersecting linear crop marks on land around the Fullamoor Plantation.

DESCRIPTION: the cemetery survives as a group of ring ditches identifiable through crop marks shown on aerial photographs. There is a group of three incomplete crop marks to the north of the site: they are c7m in diameter and indicate one causewayed ring ditch, and two other ring ditches, also with possible causeways. There are six larger circular cropmarks to the north of the plantation, and three on the southern field boundary, one of which has a double ditch, another of which is incomplete. The ditches range from 16m to 33m in diameter, and have been under plough for many years hence are no longer visible as earthworks.

Other miscellaneous crop marks are likely to indicate field boundaries and enclosures of Iron Age and Roman date and of several phases of development.

EXCLUSIONS: all structures related to the modern agricultural use of the site are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath them is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The Early Bronze Age round barrow cemetery at Fullamoor Plantation, seen as ring ditches visible as crop marks, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Rarity: barrow cemeteries are sufficiently rare nationally that there is a presumption in favour of scheduling those that are relatively complete and that retain archaeological remains;
* Documentation/finds: aerial photographs, survey, antiquarian excavation and recent trial trenching provide good evidence for the survival of nationally important archaeological features and recovered a range of artefacts and remains related to the use of the area as a Bronze Age funerary site;
* Survival: despite the loss of upstanding barrow mounds the ditches survive well and to significant depth, and the group itself is complete and illustrative of the dispersed cemetery form;
* Diversity: a range of types of barrow remains survive, including three which share morphological similarities to late-Neolithic barrows, an unusual disc barrow, and a multi-phase double ditched barrow, representing a range of approaches to funerary ritual;
* Potential: the round barrows have the potential to include funerary deposits and artefacts which will inform on the traditions of the period and there is the potential for further remains to exist between the barrows.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Boyle, A, Jennings, D, Miles, D, Palmer, S, The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Butler's Field, Lechlade Volume 1: The Prehistoric and Roman Activity and Anglo-Saxon Grave Catalogue, (1998)
Don Benson, , David Miles, , The Upper Thames Valley: An Archaeological Survey of the River Gravels, (1974), 63-65
Paul Ashbee, , The Bronze Age Round Barrow in Britain, (1960)
Websites
Monument no. 1088980 (a causewayed ring ditch and two further ring ditches), accessed 02/10/2015 from http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1088980
Monument no. 238372 (circular crop marks), accessed 02/10/2015 from http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=238372
Monument no. 936555 (miscellaneous ditches), accessed 02/10/2015 from http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=936555
Possible Barrow Cemetery at Fullamoor Plantation, accessed 02/10/2015 from http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MOX81&resourceID=1033
Other
Andy Taylor, Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Archaeological Evaluation - Land at Abingdon Road, Culham, Oxfordshire, December 2013
Booth, Paul, Boyle, Angela, Keevil, Graham G, A Romano-British Kiln Site at Lower Farm, Nuneham Courtenay, and Other Sites on the Didcot to Oxford and Wooton to Abingdon Water Main, Oxfordshire, in 'Oxoniesia' (1993)
ET Leeds, Round Barrows and Ring-Ditches in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, in 'Oxoniesia' (1936)
Heather Hopkins, Thames Valley Archaeological Services, An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment - Land at Abingdon Road, Culham, Oxfordshire, November 2008
Ruth Beckley and David Radford, Oxford City Council. Oxford Archaeological Resource Assessment 2011: Neolithic To Bronze Age, 2012
V Fenner and C Dyer, The Thames Valley Project: a report for the National Mapping Programme, 1994. Available at http://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/thames-valley-mapping-project-nmp/ Accessed 02/10/2015

Source: Historic England