THE society’s programme of monthly lectures continued on February 10, when the subject of the lecture given by Kris Strutt, of Southampton University, was “Archaeological Surveying in Syria and Egypt.”

The speaker gave an overview of the resistivity, magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar technology which he had used during recent excavations in the Middle East.

In a short report such as this, it is not possible to explain in detail the techniques which are applied to obtain basic measurement data for analysis by computer.

Sufficient to say no-one of them can provide all the answers to questions which archaeologists try to answer, and their most effective use is in combination depending on the particular conditions encountered in the field.

Their deployment can save time trying to locate archaeology below the surface, and in identifying hitherto unknown features on sites which have been previously been excavated.

Several examples were given of work which was underway in Egypt until very recently notably in the Nile Delta region, where changes in the course of the river had resulted in present topography masking archaeological remains, and at Luxor where a surprisingly large settlement was revealed to have developed in the vicinity of a temple which was formerly believed to have stood in isolation.

Volunteer field work continued with site clearance work at Lake Barrows on February 20, and preliminary survey work for woodland archaeology planned for March 13 on the Wessex Downs is now complete.

Indoors, several members have been working recently on the painstaking task of examining and transcribing wills and inventories and other records at Hampshire County Record Office for the Basingstoke volume of the revised Victoria County History of Hampshire.

Also indoors, the Pottery Study Day will be taking place on Saturday, March 19, at Wessex Archaeology, Old Sarum.

Planning for the members group visit to Pembrokeshire for five days from June 30 continues.

The next meeting will be held at Church Cottage at 7.30pm on Thursday, March 10, when Nick Stoodley, of The University of Winchester, will lecture on “The Archaeological Evidence for Saxons in Hampshire.” Non-members are welcome at an admission price of £2.