Ancient Thames burial site found

archaeology#topic

An archaeological discovery which could be a prehistoric burial area has been found at the site of a former hospital.

Three large "ring ditches" have been unearthed, which may have been used to bury important Bronze Age chiefs.

Traces of a later 6th-century Saxon settlement have also been discovered following excavation by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) at the former Radcliffe Infirmary in the centre of Oxford.

Burial, ritual and social monuments were often built on the gravel terraces around the River Thames, known as the River Isis for the stretch that passes through Oxford.

A MOLA spokesman said: "Ring ditches are, as the name suggests, circular ditches, which are often the remains of ploughed-out barrows, that may be associated with burials of high-status individuals in the later Neolithic or Bronze Age, about 4,000 years ago."

It is not unusual to find Saxon remains around prehistoric barrows. They have been discovered at other similar sites along the Thames. Remains from the excavation have now been sent for radio carbon dating.

Oxford University is redeveloping the former Radcliffe Infirmary site as part of plans for the institute's new Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

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