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Proc. Hampshire Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 64, 2009, 81-104 (Hampshire Studies 2009) EXCAVATIONS AT A MULTI-PERIOD SITE NEAR CAMS HILL SCHOOL, FAREHAM, HAMPSHIRE: GERMANIC INFLUENCE ON THE LATE ROMAN HAMPSHIRE COAST? By DANIEL EDDISFORD with contributions by PHILIPPA BRADLEY, JOHN GlORGI, MALCOLM LYNE, FRANCES RAYMOND, KIM STABLER, ANGELA WARDLE and SYLVIA WARMAN ABSTRACT ter Road and to the west by Shearwater Avenue (SU 5947 0596: Fig. 1). The excavations took An excavation was conducted by AOC Archaeol- place intermittently between March 1999 and ogy Group on land near Cams Hill School at the January 2000. Initially an evaluation consisting corner of Portchester Road and Shearwater Avenue, of 15 hand excavated test pits was undertaken, Fareham. The earliest evidence of activity on the site while a second stage of works was a watching was a few stray finds of Neolithic worked flint took brief to monitor topsoil stripping and record and waste flakes. Three small middle Bronze Age any archaeological features present. A total of pits appear to be the remnants of cremation burials nine areas were investigated during the course or ritual funerary deposits. In the late Iron Age a of the watching brief (AOC Archaeology 2000), series of field boundaries and post-built timber struc-which covered the footprint of the building tures were established on the site. This field system development as well as work in advance of appears to have remained with little change until the a new access road. The site is now a housing late Roman period when it was replaced by a much estate, named Magpie, Goldcrest, Partridge and smaller enclosure at the northern end of the site. As Peacock Closes. The site code is FSA99, and the well as a number of working hollows, a sunken- archive is deposited with Hampshire Museum featured building of possible 'Germanic-style' was and Archives Service as Al 999.5. recorded in the late Roman phase. Throughout the late Iron Age and Roman periods the lack of domestic Geology and topography structures on the site suggest the main focus of the settlement was located elsewhere. The presence of dem-The site is located on a roughly level peninsula olition debris from some of the features of this date of the coastal plain, approximately 13 m above suggests that there may have been a Roman masonry Ordnance Datum, and about 0.5 km north building nearby. The late Roman pottery assemblageof the head of Portsmouth Harbour where it included handmade grog-tempered 'wasters', suggest-meets the estuary of the Wallington River. It ing pottery manufacture on or near the site. Sparse lies on Coombe Deposits with brickearth over evidence of early Saxon activity was recorded but the terrace gravels, which overlie the Reading Beds focus of activity appears to have shifted away from the formation. site at the end of the Roman period. Archaeological sites andfindspots in the Cams Hill area INTRODUCTION A summary of the principal archaeological This report gives the results of an archaeological sites and findspots in the vicinity of the site is excavation by AOC Archaeology Group prior to shown on Fig. 1. Neolithic activity in the area the redevelopment of land between Fareham is limited to scatters of flints to the north and and Portchester, just to the east of Cams Hill south of the site. Bronze Age features include a School, and bounded to the north by Portches- pit containing pottery and burnt flint, possibly 81 Gazetteer 0 1 & 2 = Neolithic Flint Scatters 0 3 = Possible Bronze Age Cremation # 4 = Bronze Age Rubbish Pits # 5 = Late Iron Age Settlement # 6 & 7 = Late Roman Occupation |Areaol i.xcavation Line of New Road Fig. 1 Site location EDDISFORD: EXCAVATIONS AT A MULTI-PERIOD SITE NEAR CAMS HILL SCHOOL, FAREHAM 8 3 Fig. 2 Plan of Bronze Age and Iron Age features 84 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY a cremation, and rubbish pits containing an of this material confirmed the pattern of post arrowhead and pottery which may relate to depositional disturbance. a Bronze Age settlement. Iron Age activity is Of the retouched forms only one, a chisel better represented by a settlement of ditched arrowhead, is dated to the mid to late Neolithic enclosures and round houses located 1 km to in terms of typology. The other forms such the north of the site (Hughes 1974). Excava- as serrated and retouched flakes and a large tions targeted on rectangular crop marks in scarper are, on the whole, consistent with this this area confirmed a late Iron Age date (HCC date, a date supported by the technological 1981,10; HCC 1983, 3). traits evident within the rest of the assemblage. The most significant settlement of Roman The assemblage is dominated by debitage, date in the immediate area is Portchester with only a handful of retouched forms. Flakes Castle (Cunliffe 1975). The fort at Portchester constitute a high proportion of the debitage, was established in the late third century as part two multi-platform cores and one partially of a system of coastal defences, now called the prepared discoidal core were recovered from 'Saxon Shore Forts,' intended to protect the the site. Two further fragments of cores were country against Saxon raids from the continent. also recovered, at least one of which is a A late Roman settlement was also established in discoidal type. Overall the assemblage suggests what is now the centre of Fareham. Evidence is domestic activity occurring on or near to the limited but 4th century pottery has been iden- site in the Neolithic period. tified in pits and ditches on the High Street (Hassall etal. 1977, 418) and the Crown Offices Phase 2: the middle Bronze Age (1600 - 1100BC) site (Holmes 1975) along with other surface (Fig. 2) finds in the area. Surfaces and hearths of a similar date were also recorded during the con- Middle Bronze Age pottery was recovered struction of the M27 motorway in 1973 (Frere from three pits, all in the southwest area of &Tomlin 1991, 288). the site. A late Roman pit contained a single The Saxon occupation of Portchester Castle residual Bronze Age base sherd, made from a is well documented (Cunliffe 1976). Due to the sandy fabric tempered with flint. The pottery difficulty of dating early Anglo-Saxon artefacts, recovered from within the other three cuts it is not possible to say with any certainty all appears to be in-situ, deliberately placed whether Portchester Castle was occupied con- material. The pottery from two of the features tinuously or if it was briefly abandoned at the is very similar in form, consisting of fragments end of the Roman period. of the base and lower walls of what appear to be a middle Bronze Age barrel, or more likely, bucket urns. THE SITE Pit cut [050] contained a burnt deposit and a large proportion of fire cracked flint. It also Following the initial evaluation a watching brief contained two large fragments from the lower was conducted during the removal of topsoil walls of a relatively large, thick-walled Deverel from the development area. Seven phases Rimbury bucket or barrel urn. The pottery were identified, including a phase for undated was of a coarse, flint-tempered fabric with an features. oxidised reddish or yellowish brown exterior. The upper portion of the vessel appears to Phase 1: the Neolithic (4500 - 2300 BC) have been truncated, probably by ploughing. However, the absence of the base of the vessel Neolithic activity on site was represented solely suggests it was deliberately buried with the base by residual worked flint. A total of 83 pieces already missing. The good condition of the were recovered from various features during pottery, with little sign of abrasion, is consistent the excavation and the abraded nature of much with rapid, deliberate burial of the vessel. EDDISFORD: EXCAVATIONS AT A MULTI-PERIOD SITE NEAR CAMS HILL SCHOOL, FAREHAM 85 Pit cut [137] contained 54 sherds of identical nium. By the final quarter of the Iron Age, at coarse, flint-tempered pottery. Again the sherds some point after 200BC, there is evidence for were mostly from the lower walls of a vessel, but the establishment of an agricultural enclosure included a small proportion of the outer base system and associated structures and storage circumference. Several of the body fragments pits. retained traces of a charred residue on the interior. A single fragment of burnt bone was Northern enclosure also recovered from the feature. All the sherds An enclosure was established in the northern recovered from this pit appear to be from the half of the site, defined by N-S ditches [507] same vessel, although edge damage precluded and [056] and E-W ditches [443] and [573]. cross-context re-fitting. The broken urn was The primary fill of ditch [443] contained a deliberately buried, possibly in two separate fragment of a clay loomweight and a small events. pottery assemblage. The pottery from these Slightly to the south pit [203] contained a ditches is dated to the first or second centuries Bronze Age pottery assemblage quite different BC, indicating that the enclosure was estab- in character to those described above. The lished towards the end of the Iron Age. A assemblage consisted of 52 sherds in variable single piece of human bone was retrieved conditions which are derived from at least from ditch [443]. The bone is residual and its seven vessels. These are made from six different inclusion in the ditch fill appears to be acciden- fabrics, four of which are represented by tal. Human bone was not necessarily regarded featured sherds dating to the end of the middle with reverence and is commonly found among Bronze Age.

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