Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook an archaeological excavation in advance of construction of an industrial unit at Polar Technology’s headquarters at Oasis Business Park, Eynsham (NGR SP 42761 08768; Fig. 1). The site lay 1 km north-west of a northern loop in the River Thames by means of which the river circumvents the limestone outcrop of Wytham Hill before turning south to pass through Oxford. The northern boundary was marked by the Chil Brook, one of a number of minor watercourses that drain this flat agricultural landscape and flow eastward into the Thames, the confluence in this instance lying a short distance downstream of Eynsham Lock. Prior to excavation the site consisted of agricultural land, the northern part of which was crossed by a former railway line that had been tarmacked and used as a car park. The site was situated at c.66 m above Ordnance Datum on the Summertown-Radley gravel terrace of the Thames, a short distance off the alluviated part of the floodplain, which lies at c.60 m above OD.

The development area was situated partly within a scheduled monument, described in the listing as a ‘large and important concentration of cropmarks, mostly comprising Bronze Age ring ditches and barrows, and Iron Age/Roman enclosures and settlement sites’.