Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012
The site is to be found on sheet 38 W. of the 6 in. O.S. in the area surrounding the small cross-roads (B.M. 255 ft.) about three-quarters of a mile north-west of Standlake church on the way to Hardwick. From the gently rising ground at this point one can look across the valleys of the Windrush and Thames (210 O.D. at New Bridge), and over the Faringdon–Cumnor Corallian ridge to the Berkshire Downs beyond. The arable fields which to-day cover the slope (‘Standlake Down’) are rather bleak and featureless, as the gravel terraces in this sector of the Oxford Basin tend to be; but from the Bronze Age onwards they were sufficiently attractive to maintain a relatively large population.
page 202 note 1 Eynsham Chr. 88, 95, Stanlache (Alexander, Oxfordshire Place-Names, 193), ‘the stony stream’; refers to a running stream as well as to a pool of standing water. An adequate supply of water was probably obtainable from this nearby arm of the Windrush, and from the excellent local springs.
page 202 note 2 See Biographical Memoir in Oxford Chronicle, 6th Oct. 1866.
page 202 note 3 Proc. Soc. Ant., 1st Ser., iv, 93 f., 215 f.
page 203 note 1 Those investigated and accurately planned from surface crop-marks by Stone (Archaeologia, xxxvii, 363 f.) may be seen in fig. 2, 1–13, together with six or seven other circles large and small (shown in broken outline) identified from the air. The elliptical ring ditch (Stone no. 2) may be compared with another example of oval form, near Foxley Farm, Eynsham, located from the air by Major Allen (see Oxoniensia, vi, fig. 13). An air-photograph of the crop-marks near Standlake Church has appeared in Luftbild und Vorgeschichte, 50. A late Bronze Age urnfield overlapping ring ditch no. 6 was also examined in 1857 (for plan see Arch, xxxvii, 365). Note also pit B:Z, site of crouched burial (1941), and pit D: X, burial with B beaker, closely paralleled in ornament by another from Eynsham, Oxoniensia, iii, pl. iv, c.
page 204 note 1 The exact situation remains uncertain, but it is likely that it lay between the cross-roads and the gravel pits opened in 1857, and away from the band of dark soil visible both from the air and on the ground (cf. pl. xxviii. This represents a broad, flat, ditchless bank of unknown character and date, similar in appearance to others at Eynsham, Cassington, etc.
page 204 note 2 The skeleton of a ‘very young child’ is stated (p. 216) to have been found in one pit. No grave goods are recorded and its present whereabouts is unknown.
page 204 note 3 An important ‘village’ site recently discovered (1941) near Foxley farm, Eynsham, contained great numbers of storage pits almost equally densely distributed (A 2, and AB pottery).
page 206 note 1 At W. Cassington, 4 out of the 13 pits described (Antiq. Journ. xv, 33 f.) exceeded 4 ft. and 2 more reached nearly 6 ft. At E. Cassington, however, only 1 out of 9 exceeded 3 ft. At Radley, among the 30 pits examined, 1½;–2 ft. was an average depth, the floor of the deepest only touching 2 ft. 6 in., while at Mount Farm (Oxoniensia, ii 12f.), 1 pit alone out of 12 excavated reached 4 ft.
page 206 note 2 Cf. E. T. Leeds at Cassington (op. cit. 36).
page 206 note 3 The same phenomenon was observed at Fisherton (W.A.M. 46, 593) in 1866, and by Dr. Bersu at Little Woodbury (Proc. Prehist. Soc. vi, pt. 1, 53).
page 208 note 1 The contrast between high-level and low-level settlements and the problems of identifying village or farmstead sites in this area are discussed in the forthcoming report on the Iron Age site at Allen's Pit, near Dorchester, Oxoniensia, vi.
page 209 note 1 Two plain little jars, of A2 form, with slackened shoulders, were illustrated in Antiq. Journ. xv, pl. iv.
page 210 note 1 Large jars with rounded shoulders and constricted necks were in evidence at All Cannings. An interesting vessel of similar form, with incised chevron decoration, was illustrated with Iron Age A pottery from Boxford Common in Trans. Newbury D.F.C. viii, no. 1, 54. The numerous ceramic parallels with All Cannings Cross, at Standlake, once more emphasize the close relationship of the Oxford Basin with Wessex during Iron Age A, despite any differences in the details of economic organization.