Proc Hampshire Fld Club Archaeol Soc 36

SU 513345, 511341. Excavations on the proposed route of M3 recovered details of 2500 years of landscape history. A linear soil mark proved to be a rutted Roman hollow-way; contemporary land boundaries, along one of which was a 4th century cemetery (eight graves laid E-W coffined, some gravegoods), were excavated. Late Neo-BA pits and scoops and a 'Celtic' field lynchet were also investigated, and molluscan analysis gave a succession from late Neo partial clearance of woodland, through BA woodland, to EIA-RB open country.

SU 389328, 371310. Excavations at Little Somborne revealed a 3½-acre oval ditched enclosure containing two circular houses of 9.5 m diameter, one of ?cob-and -wattle, the other post-built and porched. Eight four-post structures and numerous storage pits were excavated. The pottery range is 5th to 2nd centuries BC with predominance of the later material. A wide swathe across the Ashley settlement revealed a complex of ditches of BA and RB date. Economic evidence (grain, bones, butchery) is discussed. Au(adp)

SU 356465. Six early Saxon sunken houses with pottery, bone, and metalwork. Au(abr)

The relationship of a town with its rural means of support is considered using the exceptionally well preserved Hamwih material and the rather less full evidence from medieval Southampton; the total period covered is 7th to 16th centuries. Hamwih had an efficient and well-stocked countryside and a rather casual attitude to meat. In contrast, early medieval Southampton was more modestly supplied with meat, butchery was more professional, sheep show a marked decline in size (?breeding for wool), and more wild game was taken (?sport) than in Hamwih.

SU 571115. Examination of The Curio Shop indicated an original three-bay hall house of early 16th century. Although some key evidence has gone, it is argued that the building had been either (1) a continuous jetty building of two floors (no chimney), or (2) a house with central open hall and a gallery connecting the two upper rooms on a spine beam or bressumer along the front of the hall. (cf Blue Boar, Winchester). Wall and ceiling paintings in the N bay are of late 16th/early 17th century.