Vale and Ridgeway Project

Directors: Gary Lock and Chris Gosden

Fieldwork started in 2001 and finished with the 2011 season. Post-excavation is underway.

Marcham Personnel
Assistant Director: Zena Kamash
Landowners: Will and Janey Cumber
Excavation Manager: Sheila Raven and Paula Levick
Education Officers: Megan Price
Site Surveyor: Michael Athanson
Geophysicist: William Wintle

These excavations concentrated on the site of Marcham/Frilford which is well known from previous excavations (see the interim reports for references) and often referred to as just ‘Frilford’. Marcham/Frilford is located in the Vale of the White Horse (on the A338 to Wantage at what used to be The Noah’s Ark pub) not far from the sites we excavated as the Hillforts of the Ridgeway Project. Together the two projects explore life in this area through the later prehistoric and Romano-British periods.

This site is an Iron Age settlement which is overlain by a Romano-British temple complex. The temple has a large temenos area defined by a stone wall with various public buildings outside it. One of these is a large circular structure which has been one focus of our excavations – its function is unclear at the moment but it was probably some form of theatre/amphitheatre associated with religious activities and the nearby temple.

A video of the 2011 excavations at Marcham can be seen at http://www.skyeyecam.co.uk/video-clips (Scroll down the page)

In 2005 we were awarded a Lottery grant to develop links with the local community and have had many volunteers since. Also in 2005 we were featured on the Time Team’s Big Roman Dig.

We recommend Oxford University online courses, including one on Roman Britain.

Take an online Oxford University course on Roman Britain.

For our latest thoughts on the 2001-2007 seasons of excavation, please see our latest article in Britannia (2010): 

Kamash, Z., Gosden, C. and Lock, G. 'Continuity and Religious Practices in Roman Britain: the case of the rural religious complex at Marcham/Frilford, Oxfordshire'  (copyright: Cambridge University Press)

There has been considerable debate about the possible function of the Romano-British circular structure, see the article in Current Archaeology:

Gosden, C. and Lock, G. 2003. Frilford: A Romano-British ritual pool in Oxfordshire? Current Archaeology, No.184, Vol. XVI No 4, pp. 156-9.

Interim reports are published each year in South Midlands Archaeology and are available here as downloadable PDF files.

• The 2001 interim report
• The 2002 interim report
• The 2003 interim report
• The 2004 interim report
• The 2005 interim report - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
• The 2006 interim report
• The 2007 interim report
• The 2008 interim report
• The 2009 interim report
• The 2010 interim report
• The 2011 interim report