Antiq J 48 (2)

Very little evidence of material culture other than pottery is available, but three distinct (and sequent) ceramic "style-zones" can be postulated as a basis for further work in the area. One is named from West Harling, where indigenous coarse ware was associated with pottery having exotic traits datable to c 6th cent BC. The Fengate-Cromer group yields pottery of an initial intrusive phase c 5th cent, followed by local development linked to West Harling tradition. The third group is named from a previously unpublished pit at Darmsden (Suffolk) containing much pottery derived from Continental La Tène I traditions. It was current c 4th-3rd cents BC over a wide area and was sometimes associated with rectangular buildings; other material was of common British EIA types. Some of the burials show similarity with Continental rites. La Tène I daggers from the Thames area and elsewhere also show Continental contacts, but have not been found in association with the pottery, and the mechanisms responsible for all these contacts cannot yet be identified.

TQ 673803. The sites being investigated ahead of gravel quarrying cover many centuries and afford exceptional - and salutary - opportunities of comparing cropmark interpretations with excavation results. The site is close to a natural landfall in the narrowing Thames Estuary. Finds from six of the forty scheduled acres are described. The earliest landscape is represented by BA ditches, and there is also a Beaker burial. A 250ft diameter double-ring EIA enclosure contained carinated and finger-decorated pottery, but internal structures were not proved contemporary. Slightly later, over twenty EIA house gullies yield pottery of SE "B" type and evidence of a mainly pastoral economy. There is an enigmatic ?military 1st cent enclosure, and eighty graves span the Roman period. Domestic and workshop finds come from the largest English Saxon settlement yet discovered; pottery includes exceptionally early material, of the decades round AD 400, and Romano-Saxon wares. Perhaps German laeti were posted here to watch river traffic. Material of 5th-6th cents comes from the Saxon burial ground. The special technical and procedural problems of excavating gravel sites are discussed.

The work at Oram's Arbour in 1967 marked a considerable advance in understanding the earliest growth of Winchester, and Belgic discoveries on Cathedral Green at last indicate really substantial pre-Roman occupation. Pre-Flavian deposits at Wolvesey, taken with earlier finds, show the considerable extent of the early Roman town, which lay in the valley bottom and on the lower slopes of the western hill. The structural sequence of the Old Minster has now been established, and the layout of the 10th cent cathedral completed by the discovery of a western atrium centred on St Swithun's tomb. Excavations in Lower Brook Street have traced the development of four houses and the church of St Mary back to late 13th/early 14th cent, and have revealed the plan of a row of nearly identical timber and clay cottages, which look like a speculative investment in lower-class housing. At Wolvesey, the main entrance of the Norman palace has been found, and various later alterations followed in detail. Excavation continues. Au(abr)