The Yarnton landscape, extending from the floodplain of the Thames up
onto the higher Second Gravel Terrace, has witnessed a long history of
topographic and vegetational change linked to human activity.
Settlements on the edge of the Second Gravel Terrace were occupied
throughout the Iron Age and Roman periods. Associated with the middle
Iron Age settlement was a small cemetery of some 35 crouched inhumation
burials. Further burials were made in the Roman period. The Roman
settlement is marked by its ditched enclosures and small paddocks
suggesting intensive stock management, although the presence of an
extensive surrounding field system shows that arable agriculture was
also intensive, at least in the early Roman period.