Meet the Saxons in the Meon Valley !

Meon Valley Saxons Project

It’s Your Heritage!

What evidence is there? • Saxon churches but

most buildings were wooden.

• Post holes and trenches

• Graves• Artefacts

(Environment Agency, 2009)

Archaeology - Excavation

A Saxon cemetery was rediscovered in Droxford in 1973 when an inspection of the railway cutting revealed graves. In total, 41 graves were excavated: almost all the graves were orientated west-east with most of the bodies having been laid out on their back; the majority of burials produced grave goods, such as weapons and jewellery.

Archaeology - Fieldwork

• A lot can be found out without excavating

• Fieldwork techniques Geophysics Metal-detecting Field walking

Roman-Saxon Transition• The Romans left in c410. Soon after tribes

from north east Europe began to arrive. Southern England was settled by Saxons and Jutes.

• The Meonwara, the tribe which gave its name to the Meon Valley, were probably Jutish.

Shavards Farm, Meonstoke(King 1996, fig. 6.1)

(King 1996, fig. 6.9)

Shavards Farm, was a late 4th Century Roman Building. The Saxons probably used the building and fields.

A reconstruction of a Saxon shelter based on archaeological evidence

Shavards Farm

Magnetometry is based on the measurement of differences in the earth's magnetic field. Variations in the earth's magnetic field can be detected, which can identify brick walls, hearths, kilns and changes in soil, allowing for the location of trenches, pits and ditches.

A secret site not too far way!

Resistivity survey at Corhampton

Resistivity surveys: sub-surface materials conduct an electrical current passed through them. In general, higher resistance features have a limited moisture content, for example walls, mounds, voids, rubble filled pits, and paved or cobbled areas. Lower resistance anomalies usually represent buried ditches, trenches and pits.

The mystery siteWhat might be there?

Artist’s reconstruction of a typical (early-mid) Anglo-Saxon settlement

Reconstruction of a Saxon Hall (Dixon 1976, 60)

Fieldwalking

Metal Detecting

Project metal detectors

• Cemeteries close to settlements can provide evidence of the Saxons.

Weapons

Jewellery

It’s Saxon!

• Metalwork & pottery

• What more can be found?

Saucer brooches

(Dixon 1976, 54)

West Meon

In 2011 a total of 49 Saxon burials were found cut into the ground surrounding a Bronze Age ring ditch and into the fill of the ditch itself. These are a mix of adults, teenagers and children who were buried in a variety of crouched and stretched out positions. Weapons and jewellery were found.

What might these be?

Thank you to Dr Nick Stoodley for allowing his presentation to be adapted for schools and to Friends of Corhampton Church.