The Big Dig and the Big Surprise

With such a large site to be excavated, two archaeology companies joined forces to take on the job. Oxford Archaeology and Cotswold Archaeology formed a joint company to do the work.

It is normal practice for archaeologists to keep the number of people who know about a dig to a minimum, to avoid unscrupulous treasure hunters known as nighthawkers. As a consequence, the people of Thame during early 2015 knew little or nothing about the story unfolding. 

To begin with, the archaeologists found vast amounts of broken pottery from the Iron Age and from the Roman period.

As the dig progressed, they started to notice something appearing in their Geophysics. They saw a large curving ditch, with gaps in it.

This suggested something very significant. They confirmed they had found a Neolithic monument known as a Causewayed Enclosure.

The deadline for completing the dig was pushed back, because of this find, with the generous and community minded cooperation of Bloor Homes.