Late Bronze Age
During the Late Bronze Age, deteriorating climate and more extensive farming led to soil exhaustion and flooding from the river.
This may have encouraged the local community to move from the valley floor to higher ground below Castle Hill.
Evidence of Late Bronze Age Settlement on Castle Hill
The hilltop enclosure at Castle Hill dates to this period. The evidence of metalwork, particularly weaponry, in the Thames below the hill may reflect the presence of a regional seat of power here.
Various interpretations for the metalwork are offered, including conspicuous deposition to show wealth or weapons deposited to seal agreements/treaties. Chance losses while offloading goods seems an unlikely explanation, due to the presence of clearly used weapons.
The presence of utilised weapons here, and the unusual evidence of a skeleton with an arrowhead embedded in its spine, may be a ritual sacrifice, but may be direct evidence of conflicts, particularly as a result of climatic deterioration.
This may have been the reason for the construction of defended hilltop sites, and the establishment of the village outside Castle Hill on the sheltered side of the hills out of view from the river.
Offerings to an increasingly volatile river are of course also possible, although a tradition of deposition in rivers is known from the start of the Neolithic at least, as is shown by the two Neolithic bowls found in the river at Wallingford.
Long distance contacts
There is a reconstructible vessel from the ditch, and limited quantities of human and animal bone and charred material. The vessel is of a type found at other enclosed sites, mostly considered of high status, in the Thames estuary and along the east coast of England. This suggests a wide sphere of contacts for the inhabitants. A fragment of granite came from the top of the ditch, possibly traded from the extreme south-west, again suggesting long-distance contacts.
Settlement Size
The size of the Late Bronze Age hilltop enclosure (only c. 1 hectare) is not very large, though it would have accommodated a fair number of people. In comparison with the Neolithic monuments in the area, however, this was small, and perhaps indicates either a more local significance or a different function.
The level of activity in the surrounding area is considerable, with another settlement only 500m away below the hill on which Brightwell Barrow sits, a second settlement at Appleford and an island in the river at Wallingford with evidence of timber revetments and occupation.
