More than 20,000 items fished out of Portsmouth harbour

A veritable rash of unusual artefacts has occurred during the dredging of Portsmouth Harbour. During the course of the work, over 20,000 objects were excavated. Among them are a human skull, cannons, anchors and a German bomber engine!

The dredging and widening of the harbour entrance has removed 3.2 million cubic metres of sediment. All this was done so that Royal Navy ships – the aircraft carrier HMS ‘Queen Elizabeth’ and her sister ship HMS ‘Prince of Wales’ – could call at the nearby base.

-- Advertisement --

Among the objects excavated were eight cannons, thirty-six anchors, a German naval mine and five bombs. The appearance and removal of the latter, caused quite a stir in the area. The dangerous finds were neutralised by soldiers from the Royal Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal.

[blockquote style=”2″]”There was a burial ground on one of the islands and it is almost certain that the human remains found were washed up from there.” – said Capt Ian Greenlees, responsible for leading the dredging of the harbour entrance[/blockquote].

The skull was handed over to local police so that they could carry out the necessary examination and try to establish its origin.

A mass of bottles, pottery, shoes and various everyday objects were also excavated from the bottom. All the finds have been handed over to Wessex Archaeology so that scientists can subject them to further study.

Source: royalnavy.mod.uk

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”31298″]