Archaeological Finds on the Berkshire Downs. Investigating an Iron-Age and Roman Landscape
by Dr John Naylor
About the research project
This project explores a recently discovered site in southern Oxfordshire which has yielded numerous archaeological finds including coinage, metalwork and ceramics. The majority of these finds were recovered through metal-detecting and date to the Iron Age and Roman periods, roughly between 100 BC to AD 400. The overall assemblage has the potential to significantly add to our understanding of the site and its surroundings, and help us to more fully understand its nature and function over a long period of time.
Research aims
The project focuses on recording all of the finds discovered at the site, around 2,000 in total, on the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) online database, placing these finds alongside many thousands of others recorded from around Oxfordshire. The artefacts will be identified, photographed and measured, providing a valuable record of this important location. Geophysical surveying of the area will also be a major part of the project which, combined with the object data, will enable the project team to interpret the activity at this fascinating site over a period of around 500 years.
Biography
John Naylor is the National Finds Adviser for Early Medieval and Later Coinage, part of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a project recording archaeological objects found by members of the public. He also works on the digitisation of the Coin Room’s early modern collection.
John worked in field archaeology before completing a MA and doctorate at the University of Durham, and was a postdoctoral researcher on the ‘Viking and Anglo-Saxon Landscape and Economy’ project at the University of York (2004–07).
Taking up his current role at Oxford in 2007, he has worked on the ‘Origins of Wessex’ project (2010–12) with colleagues in the School of Archaeology, directed the project ‘An Iron-Age to Post-Roman Landscape on the Berkshire Downs’ (2016–19) and was a lead researcher on the Watlington Hoard project (2017–21) funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
He will be collaborating with colleagues at the Universities of Exeter and Cardiff on a three-year Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘Hidden Kingdoms: the South-West of Britain in Late Antiquity’ from autumn 2023.
2.00 pm for 2.30 pm at the RISC Centre, London Street, Reading RG1 4PS and from 2:15 on Zoom