Settlement around Southampton reaches back to the Stone Age. A Roman port served Winchester and Salisbury, and a Saxon trading town was later established across the river. The suggestion that such a useful natural harbour and its trade routes may have continued through the intervening three centuries is explicitly presented as speculation because the archaeological evidence does not prove it. The location remained an important port after the Saxon foundation, and Cnut was crowned king there in 1016. Southampton later developed chiefly as a merchant port: it had naval uses, but commercial traffic made it less attractive as a permanent base for a professionalized navy.
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Southampton's continuity as a merchant port
Southampton's natural harbour supported Roman and Saxon trade before becoming a major merchant port whose commercial traffic limited its later use as a naval base.