Dyke Hills Traditional Cache

The “Dyke Hills” formed the northern side of a Late Iron Age (roughly 100BC to 43AD) settlement or “oppidum”, which was protected on the west and south sides by the River Thames and on the east side by the River Thame. The earthworks originally consisted of a massive double bank and ditch – water could be diverted along this ditch connecting the Rivers Thames and Thame to form a kind of moat, for added protection.

Across the Thames, the hillfort on Castle Hill, one of the Wittenham Clumps, dates from the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. The village of Dorchester, just north of the Dyke Hills, has its origins in a small Romano-British walled town. This area therefore has huge importance to archaeologists.

Most of the Dyke Hills site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Unfortunately, the earthworks suffered extensive damage in the 19^th century, especially the western section close to the Thames.

An Oxford Archaeology report for DEFRA of May 2002 (revised December 2002) states:

Cultivation damage to physical remains of previous human activity is as old as ploughing itself … and the fact that archaeological remains can progressively be damaged, or destroyed altogether by ploughing has been acknowledged by antiquaries and archaeologists since at least the early 17th century. From 1870 concern raised by cases like the destruction of prehistoric earthworks like Dyke Hills, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, contributed to the passing of the first Ancient Monuments Act in 1882.

Following a report from Dr Simon Thurley of English Heritage on 25^th July 2003, several national newspapers highlighted the ongoing problem of damage to archaeology from ploughing…

The campaign really began in 1870, when Augustus Pitt Rivers was so horrified by the destruction of the ramparts of Dyke Hills, an iron age fort in Oxfordshire, that he wrote a savage article for the Saturday Review. He described the conversion from pasture to arable for profit as "a sordid motive" and added: "The harmless sheep is no foe to history." This led to the first legislation protecting archaeology, and his appointment as the first inspector of ancient monuments - but the ploughing of Dyke Hills went on, and continues to this day. 

[Guardian 26^th July 2003] Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jul/26/arts.highereducation

and

Dr Thurley gave the example of Dyke Hills in Oxfordshire, an Iron Age site of considerable importance, where work began in 1870 to level the defensive walls to turn pastureland into arable, prompting protests that led to the first Ancient Monuments Act in 1882. It was "saddening", he said, that Dyke Hills was still being ploughed.

[Telegraph 26^th July 2003] Full article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1437169/Ploughs-are-ripping-up-our-history.html

So the Dyke Hills site is hugely important nationally as it paved the way to the protection of many of our most famous prehistoric sites. Following the 1882 Act, the initial 68 sites covered by the legislation included many sites relatively close to here, including the Rollright Stones, Uffington Castle, Avebury, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow and of course Stonehenge.

As mentioned above, after the first Ancient Monuments Act was passed in 1882, Augustus Pitt Rivers was appointed the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments.

And in 1884, he gave his collection of around 30,000 (archaeological and ethnographic) objects to Oxford University, thereby founding the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford – a really fascinating place to spend a few hours. More information here https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/pittrivers