Monument MPM1084 - Cremation burial, Southwick Hill Crossroads

Pit containing a cremation burial, revealed during roadworks at Southwick Hill Crossroads in 1948. The pit was roughly circular in form and 3ft in diameter. The cremated remains consisted of charred bone fragments and charcoal. This burial was found approximately 40ft south-west of a Bronze Age Wessex Culture cremation (see MPM230). The burial contained no associated finds. It may have dated to the Bronze Age period.

A total of four pits were discovered at the site. This pit was one of two containing a cremation.

The presence of a Bronze Age cremation (MPM230) and inhumation burial (MPM258) found at the Southwick Hill Crossroads site in 1948 and 1972 suggest the site may originally have been used as a small barrow cemetery. However, no trace of a barrow has been revealed during excavations. The site was later used as a Saxon cemetery (see MPM229).

Corney, A et al, 1969, A Prehistoric and Anglo-Saxon Burial Ground Portsdown, Portsmouth, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol XXIV (1967), p.26-33 (Bibliographic reference). SPM98.