Monument record 0216100000 - CHINNOR HILL

IRON AGE POT & FINDS FROM NEWLY PLOUGHED FIELD. FOUND BY P CROSSLEY HOLLAND (B1).
EXCAVATED 1947-1949 BY K M RICHARDSON & A YOUNG. TRIAL TRENCHES SHOWED NO EVIDENCE OF BOUNDARY DITCH OR BANK. MAIN SITE HAD PITS & HEARTHS. POTTERY SUGGESTS DATE FROM MID-LATE PRE-ROMAN IRON AGE (B2-5).
SOME SAXON POT? (B6).



SP 767 006. IA occupation site at Chinnor. Surface finds in 1942 included pottery, a bone implement, worked flints and fragmentary loom-weights and spindle-whorls. The pottery was chiefly coarse ware of which the two main forms were carinated bowls and situliform jars. Excavations in 1947-9 revealed a main site 112 sq yds containing two types of pit, but no evidence of ditch or bank delimiting the area. The first type consisted of a level floor with deeply undercut circular annexe,
divided from the main by a marked ridge. The second had two subsidiaries with floors at different levels and was stratigraphically later than the first. Six other undercut pits varying in depth from 1'9" to 4' opened out of the main area against the walls of which were four hearths lined with flints. No true occupational level was determined.
At the NW end, wattle and daub fragments suggested a wattle structure destroyed by fire. In all, only four definite post holes were found. The infilling of the pits contained worked flints and artifacts which are probably contemporary with the neighbouring tumulus. (Tumuli at SP 7677 0063 and SP 7651 0027 (SP 70 SE 8,9)). Finds, now in Aylesbury Museum include: pottery, three iron knives; bone knife, awl, comb, needle, bronze needle, iron ring-headed pins. Items of Personal adornment comprised an amber and a blue-glass bead, and part of a shale bangle.
Both pottery and associated finds are purely IA 'A' in character. The absence of defence suggests a mid 4th century BC dating for the foundation of the settlement which probably lasted until mid-3rd century BC. (B2, B10, and B11)
Siting not established. No further finds (B12).
The origin of the specialised decoration on the IA pottery may lie in Elvuscan bronze stamnoi (B13).
Typological breakdown of the IA pottery (B14).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.