Monument MPM116 - Iron Age Fields, Portsdown II

Complex of successive Iron Age fields and associated boundary earthworks known as Portsdown II. The site was investigated during road widening at Gillman Road in 1965. Examination of land mollusc from the site suggests that the land had several times been rested and allowed to become over-grown between successive periods of ploughing and had finally been converted to open pasture.

A complex of successive Iron Age fields and associated boundary earthworks were observed during road widening at Gillman Road, Portsdown Hill, in 1965. Early ploughing was visible as scarps in the natural chalk representing six field boundaries. Only two of the earliest field levels had survived, the other four having been dispersed by later ploughing. A number of features associated with the field boundaries comprised a sequence of overlapping lynchets, a boundary bank and two ditches. A scatter of sherds of Iron Age pottery was associated with these features. The site is known as Portsdown II.

Samples of land Mollusca suggested the site had been rested and allowed to become overgrown on several occasions between periods of ploughing, eventually being converted to open pasture.

[2, p42-58]

Portsmouth City Council, n/a, Portsmouth City SMR Cards, SU60NE9 (Index). SPM1.

<2> Bradley, Richard, 1967, Excavations on Portsdown Hill 1963-5, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol XXIV, p.42-58 (Bibliographic reference). SPM347.