Late Iron Age
Late Iron Age (100BC - 450 AD)
Very little from the Late Iron Age period has been found on the Clumps or around Little Wittenham.
Two Late Iron Age coins have been found in the area, one south of Hill Farm and the other south-west of Long Wittenham.
These items indicate local wealth and are increasingly being seen as deliberately deposited rather than just lost; one of the two coins was gold!
The construction of Dyke Hills and the associated settlement on the north side of the Thames is usually attributed to the Late Iron Age. This new and very large, partly fortified site, may mean not only a new focus of power in the area but a gathering of the population into the oppidum (a large Late Iron Age settlement).
Dyke Hills
Dyke Hills can possibly be interpreted as a valley fort, built to take advantage of trade coming upriver from the Thames estuary and Continent. They could have been placed at the mouth of the Thame to control and organise the shipment of goods from the Thame valley down for exchange.
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