Monument MPM230 - Bronze Age Wessex cremation burial, Southwick Hill Crossroads

Bronze Age Wessex Culture cremation burial found during road works in 1948. A number of grave goods were recovered including amber and shale beads, a lignite button and incense cup.

A Bronze Age Wessex Culture cremation burial found during road works at Southwick Hill Crossroads in 1948. Finds recovered from the burial consisted of 16 graduated amber beads, 107 small discoidal shale beads, a lignite button with sheet-gold cover and a slotted incense cup. The cremation itself was made up of bone fragments and charcoal. Examination of the skull fragments revealed that the remains belonged to at least two individuals.

The cremation had been heaped in the centre of a sub-rectangular flat bottomed grave approximately 4ft 3in long x 3ft wide x 12in deep. The cremated remains and charcoal were mixed with 16 amber and 107 shale beads, snail shells and the remains of small rodents. A gold-cased conical lignite button had been placed point down in the centre at the top of the pile. Sherds belonging to a slotted incense cup had been placed against the side of the pit.

Additional burials, including a Wessex Culture inhumation burial found at Southwick Crossroads in 1972 (see MPM258), suggest that the site may originally have been used as a small barrow cemetery. However, no traces of a barrow have been revealed during any excavations at the site.

The finds are held under Portsmouth Museum Service Accession number: 1948/196

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.

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