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Chalton, Hants: The Evolution of a Landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Barry Cunliffe
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Summary

Intensive fieldwork in an area 4½ miles (NS) by 3 miles (EW) based on the village of Chalton, Hants, has led to the discovery of over 120 archaeological sites on this typical stretch of chalk country. Human activity began as early as 7000 B.C. and has been continuous until the present day. Settlements of different periods reflect the ways in which man has adapted himself to the physical environment and has in turn adapted it to his needs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , September 1973 , pp. 173 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1973

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References

page 173 note 1 Knocker, G. M., ‘Early burials and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Snell's Corner, near Horndean, Hampshire’, Proc. Hants Field Club, xix (1956), 117–70Google Scholar.

page 174 note 1 All sites are individually numbered and recorded on 6″ O.S. maps and index cards. This information is incorporated in the archive of the Archaeological Division of the Ordnance Survey and periodically brought up to date. Where sites are referred to below their number will be quoted.

page 174 note 2 Cunliffe, B. ‘A Bronze Age Settlement at Chalton, Hants (site 78)’, Antiq. Journ. 1 (1970), 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 174 note 3 Cunliffe, B., ‘Manor Farm, Chalton, Hants’, Post.-Med. Arch, vii (1973), 31–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 175 note 1 Cunliffe, B., ‘Saxon and Medieval Settlement Pattern in the region of Chalton, Hampshire’, Med. Arch, xvi (1973), 1–12Google Scholar.

page 175 note 2 It should be emphasized that the success of this kind of project depends to a great extent on a de- tailed local knowledge, particularly in assessing when fields are in the optimum state for searching, and in being constantly on the spot. The debt which the present writer owes to his co-worker Mr. John Budden is incalculable in this respect and in many others.

page 176 note 1 These sites and the neolithic axe factories were discovered by Mr. Chris Draper in whose collection most of the finds remain.

page 178 note 1 The site was published (see above, p. 174, n. 2) before the radiocarbon date was made available by the British Museum Laboratory. the ref. number is BM -583; the correction offered is on the 5720 half life without further calibration.

page 178 note 2 A number of isolated barrows and contemporary burials from the lower slopes is a reminder that the apparent preference for hill crests might, in part at least, be unduly emphasized by the effects of later destructive ploughing on the lower slopes.

page 180 note 1 This tentative view has been briefly discussed by the present writer in ‘Some Aspects of Hillforts and their Cultural Environments’ in The Iron Age and its Hill-Forts, edited by Jesson, M. and Hill, D. (1971), pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

page 180 note 2 In the late period seven sites are recorded, but the number is depressed by the fact that it is often difficult to distinguish the pottery from early Roman fabrics: where a doubt exists the site is omitted from the pre-Roman map. Since many of the Roman sites develop out of pre-Roman settlements the probability is that the number of ‘late Iron Age’ sites should be more than doubled. Bearing in mind the shortness of the period compared to the ‘early’ and ‘middle’ phases this number must surely imply an increase in population, always supposing that no hidden factor, e.g. the change from nucleated to scattered settlement, is involved.

page 184 note 1 Bowen, H. C. and Fowler, P. J., ‘Romano- British Rural Settlements in Dorset and Wiltshire’, in Rural Settlement in Roman Britain, ed. Thomas, C. (1966), pp. 43–67Google Scholar.

page 185 note 1 The Saxon settlement pattern has been dis cussed in some detail in the author's paper quoted above, p. 175, n. 1. For an interim report on the first season's excavations see Addyman, P. and Leigh, D., Med. Arch, xvi (1973), 13–31Google Scholar.

page 185 note 2 Op. cit. above, p. 175, n. 1.

page 187 note 1 Inq. p.m. 17 edn. I, no. 17.

page 187 note 2 Close, 8 Hen. III, iii. 2.

page 189 note 1 Op. cit. above, p. 175, n. 1, and fig. 3.