The Archaeology of the Gravel Terraces of the Upper and Middle Thames: The First Foundations of Modern Society in the Thames Valley, 1500 BC - AD 50

The Thames Valley has been important for understanding late prehistory for 150 years. The landscape changed from being dominated by monuments and mobile patterns of residence to more organised forms of land use and settlement. The dynamics of change were more subtle than is sometimes portrayed, but by the end of the period the impact of later prehistoric farming on the environment was altering the way that people used the landscape. Around 800BC, the balance of economic development shifted from the Middle to the Upper Thames perhaps reflecting socio-economic disruption combined with differential population pressure. Agricultural surpluses were exchanged for prized products, and the region has produced evidence of the earliest specialist iron working in Britain. Increasingly large defensive enclosures became the main communally built expressions of sociopolitical cohesion and rivalry. By the end of the period even larger communal works reflect the emergence of a new tribal politics prior to Roman annexation.