Publications
Commanding position: high-status Late Iron Age and Romano-British occupation of a Wealden ridge at Beedings Hill, West Sussex, by Matt Pope, Caroline Wells, David Rudling, Anna Doherty, Sue Pringle, Louise Rayner and Roberta Tomber, published 2012 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 150, article, pp.71-94) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18615] & The Keep [LIB/500368] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:This report presents the results of recent excavation and a field-walking survey at Redfolds Farm and Beedings Castle, near Nutbourne, Pulborough. It also publishes for the first time material from this site retained by the late Con Ainsworth. Late Iron Age and early Roman finds of pottery, including imported Dressel 1 amphorae and 'Pulborough' samian, coins and ceramic building material, are reported and discussed. Through the fieldwork and archive reassessment undertaken as part of the Beedings survey, Beedings Hill can now be confirmed as a site with significant high-status Late Iron Age and Romano-British activity. Strong evidence has been identified for trading contacts with the continent in the form of wine amphorae, other ceramics and Late Iron Age coinage. Insights are gained into Iron Age decorated pottery groups and the local production of samian in the 2nd century ad. The significance of this evidence in understanding the distribution of political power in Late Iron Age West Sussex and its transformation under Roman rule are discussed.
Archaeological investigations of the Devil's Ditch at Windmill Park, Stane Street, Halnaker, West Sussex, by Anna Doherty and Nick Garland, published 2015 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 153, article, pp.41-46) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18934] & The Keep [LIB/509033] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:A small excavation was carried out on a section of "the Devil's Ditch" at Halnaker. This ditch-and-bank entrenchment has generally been interpreted as part of a series of dykes enclosing a c. 1st century BC territorial oppidum at the western edge of the Sussex coastal plain. However, previous campaigns of excavation have produced ambiguous dating evidence, leading to some suggestions that the monument is actually of medieval date. Although there were some indications of Roman and/or medieval re-cutting of the ditch, OSL dating of the primary fills produced date ranges falling entirely within the 1st millennium BC. The most significant finding is that the earliest fills of the ditch had started to accumulate by c.80 BC at the latest. This evidence essentially disproves the theory that the ditch was first established as boundary to a medieval deer park but it also poses questions about whether the entrenchment could have been founded before the Late Iron Age.
Excavations on St Anne's Hill: A Middle/Late Iron Age Site and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at St Anne's Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex , by Anna Doherty and Christopher Greatorex, published 2 May 2016 (240 pp., SpoilHeap Publications, ISBN-10: 0957650981 & ISBN-13: 9780957650985)