Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire - Archaeological Excavation and Assessment of Results

Wessex Archaeology

The excavation, comprising four trenches, confirmed the location of several features previously identified from aerial photographs, but also demonstrated the limitations of both aerial photographs and geophysical survey data in the precise identification of features. Two trenches over a feature (structure 500), identified from aerial photographs and interpreted as an Anglo-Saxon ‘Great Hall’, confirmed the size and nature of this feature. It was shown to be a substantial timber-built hall of early or middle Saxon date. The remains comprise foundation trenches with external postholes around one end, and two possible internal partitions.

A prehistoric penannular ditched feature, also seen on aerial photographs, was found to have been cut by the hall, possibly in a deliberate siting of the hall in association with the earlier landscape feature. A trench over a ‘lesser’ hall revealed that it cut through an earlier SFB of probable 5th to 7th century date. A trench positioned over another possible SFB (as identified from aerial photographs) found this to be a large pit, which could not be dated as it contained no artefacts or stratigraphic relationships.

A scarcity of good dating evidence means that many features cannot be closely dated within the overall chronological sequence, and therefore the precise chronological relationships between all of the Saxon features, in particular, could not be ascertained with any degree of confidence.