It’s Your Heritage! What evidence is there? Saxon churches but most buildings were wooden. Post holes and trenches Graves Artefacts (Environment Agency, 2009)

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.

A lot can be found out without excavating Fieldwork techniques  Geophysics  Metal-detecting  Field walking

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 4 th Century Roman Building. The Saxons probably used the building and fields.

A reconstruction of a Saxon shelter based on archaeological evidence

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.

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.

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

Reconstruction of a Saxon Hall (Dixon 1976, 60)

Project metal detectors

Cemeteries close to settlements can provide evidence of the Saxons. Weapons Jewellery

Metalwork & pottery What more can be found? Saucer brooches (Dixon 1976, 54)

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.