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The Roman Villa at Bignor in the fourth century, by E. W. Black, published March 1983 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 2, issue 1, article, pp.93-107)   View Online

The plan of the Bignor villa is reassessed in the light of recent excavations by Frere. Changes of plan are recognized and discussed. The farm buildings are considered in detail modifying Applebaum's original interpretations.

Flint procurement and Neolithic Axe production on the South Downs: a re-assessment, by Julie Gardiner, published July 1990 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 9, issue 2, article, pp.119-140)   View Online

This paper reviews the evidence for Neolithic flint axe production on the South Downs in the light of recent chemical analysis of axes and the author's own research involving surface flint collections. The organisation, status and chronology of the Sussex flint mines is discussed and the distribution of flint axes described. Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age settlement is shown to concentrate on the clay-with-flints which is also a major flint source. It is argued that the production of axes from mined flint was replaced by utilisation of surface deposits in the later Neolithic and case studies are presented.

Problems of Phasing: A reconsideration of the Black Patch Middle Bronze Age 'Nucleated Village', by Miles Russell, published March 1996 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 15, issue 1, article, pp.33-38)   View Online

The Middle Bronze Age settlement complex of Black Patch, East Sussex, originally considered to represent the remains of a single phase 'nucleated village', is here reconsidered as representing the remains of two chronologically distinct settlement units. The dangers inherent in overlooking sequence and assuming contemporaneity for all archaeological features revealed within the course of a single excavation, are outlined.

Round barrows and the harmonious landscape: placing Early Bronze Age burial monuments in south-east England, by David Field, published November 1998 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 17, issue 3, article, pp.309-326)   View Online

The distribution and siting of barrows within the landscape of south-east England is considered, and it is observed that clustering occurs on certain geological units and in specific topographical positions. A socio-economic explanation for the distribution of those in Sussex is possible, and the concentrations can even be considered in terms of territorial units. However, distribution across the south-east is nodal, and the clusters present on the South Downs are not matched on the North Downs, and it is necessary to consider other explanations. A cosmological approach provides a fresh insight into the siting of barrows and helps explain siting within cemeteries as well as within the wider landscape.

Building 'Anderita' Late Roman Coastal Defences and the Construction of the Saxon Shore Fort at Pevensey, by A. F. Pearson, published February 1999 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 18, issue 1, article, pp.95-117)   View Online

The construction of the Roman coastal installation at Pevensey (East Sussex) in the late third century represented a building project of considerable importance, size and complexity. A study of the surviving material has identified the lithologies employed in the fort's construction, the approximate quantities in which they were present and the likely areas from which they were quarried. Local sources were exploited wherever possible, although an insufficient supply of brick seems to have forced the builders to look further afield for a substitute material for use in the bonding courses. The location of the quarries suggests that the majority of raw materials were moved by boat, and that the transport fleet required was remarkably small. Estimates of the length of construction for the later series of Shore Forts range from less than three years to over four decades. The labour and transport requirements have been calculated for Pevensey, allowing a discussion of the feasibility of each of these proposed time scales. It is argued that all were achievable, although in the briefer scenarios the army would have been unable to provide sufficient manpower, necessitating a draft of civilian labourers.

Of Flint Mines and Fossil Men: The Lavant Caves Deception, by Miles Russell, published February 2000 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 19, issue 1, article, pp.105-108)   View Online

A series of subterranean passages first recorded in the late nineteenth century at Lavant, near Chichester have generally been interpreted as the remains of a Neolithic flint mine, one of many such sites recorded from the South Downs. Unfortunately it would appear that the site is a fraud. Not just any fraud, however, for it is likely that it represents just one in a series of increasingly complex and elaborate hoaxes staged by the very same individual responsible for the creation, identificatiom and discovery of 'Piltdown Man'.

Settlement, Landscape and Social Identity: The Early-Middle Bronze Age Transition in Wessex, Sussex and the Thames Valley, by Joanna Bruck, published August 2000 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 19, issue 3, article, pp.273-300)   View Online

In southern England, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of archaeologically visible farmsteads and field systems. This paper explores and critiques the widespread idea that these changes are the direct result of a need to intensify agricultural production. Such discussions have implicitly drawn on evolutionist images of economic maximization and environmental exploitation that do not sit easily with our knowledge of other aspects of Bronze Age society. In this paper, I shall consider economic change as a consequence rather than the cause of wider changes to the social fabric at this time. A review of the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement evidence provides insights into how society became transformed over the period and begins to hint at some of the reasons why subsistence practices changed so visibly.

Polities and Princes AD 400-800: new perspectives on the funerary landscape of the South Saxon Kingdom, by Sarah Semple, published November 2008 in Oxford Journal of Archaeology (vol. 27, issue 4, article, pp.407-429)   View Online

Burials, borders and boundaries are themes much pursued in early medieval research. Barrow burials, in particular, have been suggested as markers or 'sentinel graves'; funerary monuments used to define territorial boundaries and entrance points to kingdoms. This paper assesses the burial evidence of the fifth to eighth centuries from West Sussex, England, taking a topographic perspective and examining the uses made of ancient remains and natural topography. Certain distinctive topographic traits in cemetery and burial placement are argued to exist and, when considered alongside the written accounts of the kingdom, are suggested here as evidence for putative early micro-kingdom structures, centred around the major river valleys, surviving into and perhaps even beyond the seventh century AD.