Inside Wittenham Clumps: Baby Burial, Banjo Enclosures and a Roman Villa Twist

An Iron Age hill fort, a mysterious second hill, and a discovery that flips the script. At Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire, Time Team chases clues from Round Hill to the valley below. Across three intense days, geophysics and aerial crop marks reveal a ditched enclosure, a suspected Roman church that isn’t what it seems, and a spread of storage pits hinting at a far larger settlement than anyone expected. A rare perforated Roman spearhead surfaces at the enclosure entrance, Rhodes’ 1940s trench leads to an early Iron Age cobbled building, and a heartbreaking infant burial inside the fort raises unsettling questions. Then the helicopter view exposes classic banjo enclosures and a 300-year gap in occupation that suddenly makes sense. From newt wrangling to the largest geophysical survey Time Team has run here, every trench adds a piece to a 1,500-year story of forts, farms, and a Roman villa with a surprising “apse”. Watch to see how it all connects and what the team still can’t explain. Watch the full dig to uncover the answers. #TimeTeam #WittenhamClumps #IronAge #RomanVilla #Archaeology #CropMarks