Modern Development Digs Up Ancient Villages

OXFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND—Excavations have revealed that the site of a large new development has been home to generations of people for 9,000 years, beginning with hunter gatherers who left behind pieces of worked flint. A Neolithic bowl was found in a hole where a tree had once stood. “It may have been an offering to the gods of the underworld,” explained archaeologist Rob Masefield. A rare pond barrow that was probably used for exposure burials during the Bronze Age was uncovered, along with three burials in grain storage pits dug in a large Iron Age village made up of roundhouses. Roman-era features will be buried under playing fields. Some local residents are campaigning for the other areas of the site to be preserved in the form of a history trail marking significant places and a museum.