Monument MPM229 - Southwick Hill Crossroads Saxon Cemetery

Anglo-Saxon cemetery revealed during roadworks and rescue excavations in 1948 and 1956. Around 20-25 inhumation burials were found. One burial of an adult male contained the remains of a shield boss.

An Anglo-Saxon cemetery was revealed during roadworks and rescue excavations at Southwick Hill Crossroads in 1948 and 1956. The cemetery contained around 20-25 inhumation burials, the majority of which were adult males (approx. 70%). The remaining burials comprised adult females and the graves of three children. Some of the graves had been reused. The graves had been cut 2ft - 2ft 6in into the chalk, were roughly rectangular in form with rounded corners and were just large enough to contain the bodies. They were aligned within a few degrees of east-west, with the head to the west. The burials were largely positioned on their backs with legs straight and arms straight by their sides. No evidence of the use of coffins was found. Flints had been set into the foot of three graves and into the side of another. [1, 2]

Three graves contained artefacts, all of which belonged to adult males. These comprised an iron knife, iron buckle, and a shield boss, grip and iron rivets. The grave containing a shield boss was assumed to belong to an adult male, although only the lower half of the skeleton survived intact as the grave had been disturbed by later activity at the site. This grave had cut an earlier prehistoric feature which contained a food vessel (see MPM1690), and which possibly represented the remains of a cremation burial destroyed by the Anglo-Saxon grave. The individual had been buried away from the other Saxon burials and next to two prehistoric cremations, which included a Bronze Age Wessex culture cremation burial (see MPM230). The report suggests the Saxon grave had been positioned in the centre of a prehistoric barrow which had originally covered the two cremations, although no trace of a barrow was found during the excavations. [1]

The skull of another adult male showed evidence of violence, the individual having received a slashing blow, stabbing wound and slicing blow through the face before death. The fibula (calf) had also been fractured during the same attack [3].

A comparison of the knife, buckle and shield boss with those found at other sites, together with the east-west alignment of the graves and lack of grave goods, suggested this was a Christian cemetery dating to around the late-7th century AD. [1]

<1> 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.

<2> Portsmouth City Council, n/a, Portsmouth City SMR Cards, SU60NW19 (Index). SPM1.

<3> Cole, Garrard, unknown, Hamwic and the Rest: Is There Any Evidence for Secular Change in the Hampshire Region During the Early to Middle Anglo-Saxon Period? (Unpublished document). SPM335.