More information : (Centred SU57393937) Human Remains found, British,
Roman & Saxon found (twice). (SU57779343) Saxon Copper
Ornaments found (all NAT) (1)
British, Roman and Saxon coins have been found in great
abundance on Dike Hills (see SU 59 SE 3) together with skeletons
and Saxon copper ornaments of the 7th century. (2)
The almost complete levelling of Dike Hills in 1871 showed
it "to be full of Saxon burials" (number and details not given).
Other, non-Saxon, finds were a "few fragments of undoubtedly
pre-Roman pottery"; a cremation burial, flint scraper, two or three flakes, a few Roman-type coffin nails and the skull of
a small pug-dog identified as Roman. (3) Two inhumations were
also said to have been found (a); one crouched at a depth of
8ft and apparently Bronze Age, and the other of a "powerful
man" of unknown period, at a depth of 4ft. Two late 4th to
early 5th century AD inhumations were discovered in 1874 (b)
in the top of Dike Hills at "the end barrow nearest the
Thame stream".
Grave I contained a male inhumation, circa 6ft tall, associated
with finds including a bronze buckle, three bronze disc-ended
attachments, a garniture of bronze-sporran-like equipment, a
thin bronze plate and "pieces of iron" which may have been
weapons?
Grave II contained a female inhumation together with an early
cruciform brooch, bronze back plate of a brooch and bronze
buckle. (4) Kirk and Leeds and Hawkes agreed that the burials
represented Germanic settlers or "foederati" of the late Roman
period in Britain, prior to the Germanic invasions of the 5th
century.
A probable Anglo-Saxon burial, seemingly without grave goods
was found close to the middle of Dyke Hills in 1940. Another
inhumation of a young woman was also found in 1943, in the
side of a disused slit trench near the west end of Dyke Hills,
at a depth of circa 3ft.
Finds in Ashmolean Museum (Oxford) and British Museum
(Natural History) (8). (3-8)
Bronze buckle, sword belt, spindle whorl and other objects were found in a mound at the south-eastern end of the Dykes. (9) |