Shakenoak revisited: post-Roman occupation and burial at a Cotswold-edge villa in the light of new evidence and approaches

Shakenoak villa (Oxfordshire) is situated at the interface of the sub-Roman Cotswolds with the Early Anglo-Saxon upper Thames region. A probable sacred site, it may have been an enduring ritual focus. Place-name and topographical evidence builds an unusually strong impression of continuity across the post-Roman period. As at other Cotswold villas, some buildings were occupied well into the fifth century. A cemetery of at least 22 inhumations, mainly male and with sharp-weapon trauma, provides radiocarbon dates which, when modelled, centre around the middle and second half of the fifth century. Multi-isotope analysis (delta 13Ccoll, delta 15N, 87Sr/86Sr, delta 34S, delta 13Ccarb, delta 18O) of seven individuals indicates a northern European diet typical for this period, and suggests that most of the individuals came from south-west Britain. They may therefore have been warriors posted here by a post-Roman authority in the Cotswolds, not Germanic-speaking mercenaries from the Continent. The late- or sub-Roman military equipment, and a fifth-century bow brooch, are reassessed in the light of more recent studies and new parallels. A boundary ditch contained redeposited Anglo-Saxon material in the fifth- to eighth-century range, suggesting an adjacent settlement; eighth-century sceattas were found on the villa itself. With the new perspectives, Shakenoak re-emerges as a classic study in continuity.

Automated summary

Shakenoak villa is a potentially sacred site that experienced continuity throughout the post-Roman period. Through place-name and topographical evidence, as well as multi-isotope analysis, it is revealed that there was cultural and population movement in the region.