Designated as a Museum with an Outstanding Collection

The City's Archaeology collections include spectacular Saxon and medieval collections, and are Designated as being of outstanding importance to the nation. The size and range of the collections reflect the importance of Southampton in the past and in the present, and 50 years of systematic archaeological investigations in the City. This means that the collections are amongst the top 62 museum collections in the country (outside national museums), and in the top ten most significant archaeology collections.

Southampton City Council Archaeology Collections Documentation Project

With the support of the City Council and the Designation Challenge Fund, which is administered by Resource (Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries), we have set up a project to improve access to the collections and raise standards in the research, understanding and presentation of the Designated archaeology collections, through the compilation of a computerised database.

Our archives include paper records of all our objects, but access to this information was difficult and laborious. The creation of a computer database has been essential in enhancing the understanding of Southampton's history and providing access to information for researchers and members of the public.

We now have a database that contains records of every identifiable itemised object, or small-find, mainly those made of metal and worked bone. We hope that we will soon be able to provide access to information on all the other types of archaeological finds, such as pottery, bone and building materials. Full details of find types held within the database are available by running this query.