p> NICK Stoodley, of The University of Winchester, gave the lecture on “The archaeological evidence for Saxons in Hampshire” at the society’s monthly meeting.

Since the 19th century, events which occurred after the end of Roman rule in the province of Britannia in 410AD have been described by historians using ancient fragmentary records.

These tell a story of population dispersal and destruction of property resulting from extensive invasion by Germanic tribes from mainland Europe.

However, the earliest of the records was written more than a century later than the events described, and modern archaeological research has found no convincing supporting evidence for them, while that for fairly small-scale piecemeal movements of Germanic settlers has continued to accumulate.

In Hampshire, as Nick Stoodley explained, evidence of dress styles and artefacts such as pins and brooches indicate a complex fifth and sixth century inward migration pattern. In most of its northern and central areas, the incomers can be linked with Saxons from Germany who would seem to have arrived by way of the Thames Valley region while, in the south, the settlers were Jutes from Denmark.

Although these latter people are recorded somewhat vaguely in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of the ninth century as established in Kent and the Isle of Wight and “among the West Saxons,” it is the archaeological evidence which confirms their presence on the mainland in Hampshire.

Their settlement can, therefore, be accepted as part of a much wider pattern of migration from north-western Europe which led to the eventual emergence of half a dozen small English-speaking kingdoms and the foundation of Anglo-Saxon England.

Membership activities this month included woodland archaeology on the Wessex Downs which took place in ideal conditions on March 13, and a highly-successful Pottery Study Day at Wessex Archaeology, Old Sarum on March 19.

The next meeting will take place at Church Cottage at 7.30pm on Thursday, April 14, when Mary Lewis, of Reading University, will lecture on “A traitor’s death: the mystery of the hanged drawn and quartered man from Hulton Abbey Staffordshire.” Non-members are welcome at an admission price of £2.