PREHISTORY

The Challenge

If landscape divisions were a feature of later prehistory long before the parish units familiar to us today came into being, what did they signify? Did landscape boundaries exist, either as a physical reality or in the consciousness of people, to mark out territories of power and authority relating to the political or social organisation of groups? Or perhaps division was based on a need to share out agricultural and economic resources in a landscape which was becoming increasingly organised and controlled? Indeed boundaries could surely serve both functions, or encompass a changing role over time.

The wealth of archaeological features visible in the landscape of the Vale of White Horse today demonstrates a long period of human habitation and land use. However, the majority of surviving earthworks are confined to areas of downland; in the clay vale later development has obscured much of the landscape of more remote periods. Fortunately all is not lost, archaeologists, using increasingly sophisticated techniques, have revealed evidence which suggests a widely dispersed population intensively farmed the land both on and below the downs around Wantage in later prehistoric times.

Evidence for the course of boundaries can be particularly elusive, especially in periods before written records. Here we have to look to the landscape for clues; changes in land use or physical markers, such as, linear earthworks are possibilities. Therefore, to begin to answer some of the above questions, the project group decided to investigate a linear earthwork, known as Grim’s Ditch, which lies for some 15kms across the downs south of Wantage. This feature is thought to date from the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age. The investigation led the group to consider whether the physical memory of such boundaries influence later divisions, even long after their original purpose went out of date?