During the Early and Middle Pleistocene periods about a million years ago two rivers drained Britain - the ancestral Thames and the Bytham, a tributary of the Thames. The ancestral Thames flowed North-eastwards. During the Anglian stage of the last glaciation (476,000 bc to 422,000 BC) the ice sheets to the North were melting and a lake formed to the North of Goring. During this period the Thames eroded a gorge through the chalk and created the Goring Gap. The Thames now flowed South through the Goring Gap and East towards what is now London where it became a tributary of the Rhine. At this time Britain was still connected to the Continent - the English Channel was created by a similar erosional event at about 10,000 BC.
At this time the ice was retreating and Southern England was being exploited by Palaeolithic hunters. During archaeological excavations in the early 1990s a butchery site was discovered at Gatehampton and thus the human history of Goring and Streatley begins. The remains consisted of a large number of flint tools - which appear to have been manufactured on the site. It is thought that this was a favourable place for hunting when migrating animals were trying to cross the river and thus easy to kill.During the Mesolithic period hunter gatherers continued to visit the area and it has been suggested that there was a base camp at Goring (Case 1986). The bulk of the evidence for such activity comes in the form of flint tools - although at Gatehampton animal bone was also found.
At around 4,000 BC agriculture began to emerge in Britain in
the form of nomadic pastoralism (animals being herded rather than followed and
hunted) as well as the growing of some crops such as peas, beans and oats. This
major shift towards agriculture resulted in the establishment of permanent
settlements and also religious and burial sites. It is perhaps no surprise that
such sites were established in the Goring and Streatley area.
A causewayed camp was constructed by the Thames near to Gatehampton. The
function of these camps is unknown but they appear to be settlements, communal
centres and trade centres as well as cult centres and places of burial. At
Gatehampton human burials were discovered.
At Basildon a mortuary enclosure was discovered by aerial photography and was
partially excavated by Time Team in 2001. These enclosures are considered to
be structures where the dead were exposed to the elements so that the flesh
decayed before the bones were buried elsewhere.
At the same time chambered tombs such as Waylands Smithy were being
constructed. These were burial mounds with stone lined chambers into which the
burials were placed. The bones were often taken from the chambers and then
re-deposited suggesting that the ancestors were worshiped by the living.