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Late Bronze Age Lynchet-Settlements on Plumpton Plain, Sussex, by G. A. Holleyman and E. Cecil Curwen, published January 1935 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 1, article, pp.16-38)   View Online

Plumpton plain is situated on the top of the South Downs, roughly 600 feet above sea level, six miles north-east of Brighton and four miles north-west of Lewes (fig. 1). From its western end a broad spur slopes gently southwards from the northern escarpment of the Downs, lying between Moustone Valley on the south-east and Faulkners Bottom on the west. Most of this Downland is covered with a dense scrub of gorse, thorn and bramble, and with large patches of bracken and heather. A series of broad paths running roughly at right angles with one another has been cut through this vegetation to facilitate the preservation of game. Along the main ridge of the spur running north and south is a broad gallop which, at a height of 600 feet O.D., passes through a group of earthworks situated 1500 feet from the north edge of the Downs and 2300 feet east of Streathill Farm. This group was the primary object of bur investigations and will be referred to as Site A (fig. 2).
Site B (fig. 3) lies a quarter of a mile to the south-east of Site A on a small lateral spur jutting between the twin heads of Moustone Bottom. The only visible evidence of prehistoric occupation was a quantity of coarse gritty sherds and calcined flints on the surface to the south-east of a low bank and ditch which runs across the spur.
Several groups of lynchets enclosing square Celtic fields are to be seen in the neighbourhood of these two sites. They lie principally to the south-east of Site A and to the south of Site B.

The Pottery from the sites on Plumpton Plain, by C. F. C. Hawkes, F.S.A., published January 1935 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 1, article, pp.39-59)   View Online

A substantial series of pottery was submitted to me from both the Plumpton Plain sites. Its examination has emphasized the distinction of date between them. It will appear that Site A belongs to the earlier part of the Late Bronze Age, from perhaps about 1000 B.C., whereas Site B cannot be dated before about 750 B.C., and covers the transition to the Early Iron Age in the period approximately centred on 500 B.C.

Late Bronze Age Settlement on Itford Hill, Sussex, by G. P. Burstow and G. A. Holleyman, published January 1958 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 23, article, pp.167-212)   View Online

In the years between the two World Wars considerable research was done by Sussex archaeologists on the Late Bronze Age settlements of the South Downs (figs, 1 and 30). Several habitation sites were partly excavated, notably Park Brow near Worthing by Mr Garnet R. Wolseley in 1924, New Barn Down, Harrow Hill near Worthing by Dr E. Cecil Curwen in 1933, and Plumpton Plain, near Brighton, by Dr E. Cecil Curwen and Mr G. A. Holleyman in 1934, and an analysis of the pottery from these sites by Professor C. Hawkes has provided a typological and chronological basis for subsequent research.
After World War II the authors, inspired by the work of Dr J. F. S. Stone on the Deverel-Rimbury Settlement on Thorny Down and of Dr G. Bersu at Little Woodbury, decided to strip completely a small group of earthworks of probable Late Bronze Age date on Itford Hill near Lewes. In the spring of 1949 the site, together with the adjacent linear earthwork and group of lynchets, was surveyed by Mr E. W. Holden and Mr G. A. Holleyman. Excavations were carried out for each of five seasons (1949-1953) by means of volunteers and with the financial backing of the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society.

A Late Bronze Age urnfield on Steyning Round Hill, Sussex, by G. P. Burstow, published December 1958 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 24, article, pp.158-164)   View Online

In the autumn of 1949 when ploughing was taking place on a south-eastern spur of Steyning Round Hill (Map Ref. 51/166099), fig. 1, two schoolboys D. Atkinson and M. J. Manetta found the remains of nine Late Bronze Age urns with cremated bones just under the surface of the plough soil. They lay in a circular area roughly 30 feet in diameter covered with large flints. Most of these urns were wisely left in situ until the Steyning Grammar School Archaeological Society under the direction of the Headmaster, Mr J. Scragg, and Mr W. Gardiner, assisted by Messrs N. E. S. Norris, G. Mason, and the writer, members of the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society, undertook a methodical exploration. Our grateful thanks should be recorded to the farmer, Capt J. T. Mackley, who permitted the excavation and to all who helped in the work and dealt with the finds, as well as to Mr D. C. Tutt for kindly drawing the plan and pottery.

A Mesolithic site on Iping Common, Sussex, England, by P. A. M. Keef, J. J. Wymer and G. W. Dimbleby, published December 1965 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 31, article, pp.85-92)   View Online

The Iping Mesolithic site, found by Mr O. Knowles of Iping, lies on undulating Lower Greensand near the edge of a marsh which extends down to a pond and permanent spring (Sheet 181 O.S. 1". 8485-2221). The site was totally excavated in 1960-61, by the West Sussex Excavation Group, following its accidental discovery. It consisted of a roughly circular area, about 25 feet across, of stained sand (Layer C) stratified between white sands (Layers B and D), all underlying the topmost deposit of heather on peat (Layer A). The white sand occurs as wind-blown material intermittently over the Lower Greensand of west Sussex, south Surrey and Hampshire. The darker stained layer was less than 6 inches thick and contained an abundant flint industry of cores, waste flakes and finished tools. The industry is of Maglemosian aspect and is important for its association with a well-preserved pollen which has yielded information about the contemporary environment.

The excavation of an oval burial mound of the third millennium BC at Alfriston, East Sussex, 1974, by Peter Drewett and others, published December 1975 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 41, article, pp.119-152)   View Online

The small oval burial mound at Alfriston, East Sussex, being one of only twelve certain burial structures of the 3rd millennium bc in Sussex, was totally excavated in 1974 prior to its final obliteration by ploughing. The barrow was found to consist of a simple dump mound derived from material out of flanking ditches. It covered a single burial pit containing the crouched skeleton of a young female. Information concerning the post-Neolithic land use of Alfriston Down was obtained from the ditch silts and expanded by an intensive field survey.

The excavation of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Offham Hill, East Sussex, 1976, by Peter Drewett and others, published December 1977 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 43, article, pp.201-242)   View Online

The small causewayed enclosure on Offham Hill, East Sussex, being one of the only five surviving Neolithic enclosures in Sussex, was excavated in 1976 prior to its final destruction by ploughing. The enclosure consisted of two incomplete circles of discontinuous banks and ditches. Molluscan analysis indicated that the structure was built in a woodland clearing and that the ditches were not contemporary. A few pot sherds and flint tools were found in the shallow ditches, together with a crouched burial and disarticulated human bones. No conclusively Neolithic features were found in the interior. The possibility that this enclosure, together with others of similar type, may have been areas defined for exposure burial is discussed.

Excavations at the Neolithic enclosure on Bury Hill, Houghton, West Sussex, 1979, by Owen Bedwin and others, published December 1981 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 47, article, pp.69-86)   View Online

Summary. Excavations at Bury Hill dated a small, continuously-ditched enclosure to the early Neolithic. The interior of the enclosure, c. 1 ha in extent, was sampled by two trial cuttings, 9 m wide, running across the enclosure at right angles to one another. No Neolithic features were found. Sampling the ditch produced early Neolithic pottery, flintwork and animal bone. Though continuous, the ditch had a 'beaded' appearance, with a single entrance. No corresponding bank survived, though aerial photographs indicated its existence on the inside of the ditch.

Later Bronze Age downland economy and excavations at Black Patch, East Sussex, by Peter Drewett and others, published January 1982 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 48, article, pp.321-400)   View Online

The Later Bronze Age site at Black Patch consisted of hut platforms and enclosures set in a system of rectangular fields. The settlement area is overlooked by round barrows. Area and sample excavations of the settlement revealed circular huts and activity areas within a C-14 date range of 1070 +/- 70 bc - 830 +/- 80 bc. Extensive economic data in the form of seeds, animal bones, foreign stones and artefacts were recovered. These formed the basis of an economic resource-area analysis undertaken around Black Patch and other contemporary occupation sites on the South Downs. From this an economic activity model is proposed.

Valley sediments as evidence of prehistoric land-use on the South Downs, by Martin Bell, published January 1983 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 49, article, pp.119-150)   View Online

Recent years have seen a shift of archaeological focus away from the confines of the individual site and towards broader issues of land-use and landscape history. Hence a need for archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence which tells us about the area utilized from sites rather than about the environment on the site itself. Valley sediments are one possible source of this evidence and this paper considers their potential with specific reference to sediments in chalkland valleys on the South Downs. It also attempts to confront some more specific problems of landscape history. One aim was to assess the extent of erosion and valley sediments within defined study areas and to establish to what extent climatic and land-use factors were responsible for changes in the pattern of sedimentation. It was also hoped that detailed work on land-use sequences would provide a framework for considering long-term settlement trends on the chalk. Why, for instance, do we have dense concentrations of archaeological sites on land which is today somewhat marginal, and how were the valley bottoms utilized in prehistory?

Excavations at Copse Farm Oving, West Sussex, by Owen Bedwin, Robin Holgate and others, published December 1985 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 51, article, pp.215-245)   View Online

Two farmsteads, one of late Iron Age (second-first centuries BC) date and the other dating to the early Romano-British period (first-second centuries AD), were excavated at Copse Farm, Oving. The site is situated within the Chichester dykes on the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Plain. The Iron Age farmstead produced pottery spanning 'saucepan' and 'Aylesford-Swarling' traditions, a transition in ceramic production which is poorly understood in Sussex. Information on the agricultural economy and small-scale industries (principally metalworking) practised at this site give an insight into the way the Coastal Plain was settled and exploited at the end of the first millennium BC.

The Excavation of a Neolithic Oval Barrow at North Marden, West Sussex, 1982, by Peter Drewett, published January 1986 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 52, article, pp.31-52)   View Online

An extensively plough-damaged oval barrow of the third millennium bc was excavated. The entire mound had been removed by ploughing. No burials were found under the site of the mound but disarticulated human skeletal material was found in the ditches. The main flanking ditches appear to have silted in naturally with evidence of Beaker activity and Romano-British agriculture in the higher levels. Some evidence of deliberate back-filling, including the burial of carved chalk objects, was found in the ditches at the east end. A single Saxon hut was excavated in the north-east corner of the barrow and a rubbish deposit containing Middle Saxon pottery was found in the upper levels of the ditch in the south-west corner of the barrow.

Boxgrove, West Sussex: Rescue excavations of a Lower Palaeolithic Landsurface (Boxgrove Project B, 1989-91), by M. B. Roberts, S. A. Parfitt, M. I. Pope and F. F. Wenban-Smith, published January 1997 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 63, article, pp.303-358)   View Online

In 1988 an area of 12,000 m² in Quarry 2 at Boxgrove, West Sussex, was identified as being under threat front gravel and sand extraction. It was decided to sample the threatened area in 1989 with a series of 6 m2 test pits. The results of this survey identified two areas that merited further investigation, and area excavations were carried out at Quarry 2/C and Quarry 2/D in 1990 and 1991 respectively. These concentrated on the main Pleistocene landsurface (Unit 4c) and revealed spreads of knapping debris associated with the production of flint handaxes. Two test pits and area Q2/C produced handaxes, over 90% of which had tranchet sharpening at the distal end. A small amount of core reduction and only a few flake tools were found: these were all from Quarry 2/C. Faunal remains were located in the northern part of the excavations where Unit 4c had a calcareous cover. In Quarry 2/C the bones of C. elaphus and Bison sp. exhibited traces of human modification.
The project employed two methods of artefact retrieval: direct excavation in metre squares and bulk sieving of units within them. Comparison of the results from these methods suggests that, when on-site time is limited, the integration of these methods is a valid technique in both qualitative and quantitative terms for data recovery. The excavated areas are interpreted as a tool-sharpening and butchery site that may have been a fixed and known locale in the landscape (Q2/C), and a location on the periphery of an area of intensive knapping reduction (Q2/D). Sedimentological and microfaunal analyses demonstrate that Unit 4c was formed as a soil in the top of a marine-lagoonal silt, the pedogenic processes being similar to those observed after draining Dutch polder lakes. The palaeoenvironment is interpreted as an area of open grassland with some shrub and bush vegetation. In places the surface of the soil supported small ephemeral pools and flashes. This area of grassland is seen as a corridor for herds of ungulates moving east and west between the sea to the south and the relict cliff and wooded downland block to the north. Within this corridor these herds were preyed upon by various carnivores, and hominids.
The temperate sediments at Boxgrove were deposited in the later part of the Cromerian Complex and immediately pre-date the Anglian Cold Stage; they are therefore around 500,000 years old. The archaeological material from these and overlying cold stage deposits is broadly contemporary with that at High Lodge, Suffolk and Waverley Wood, Warwickshire.

Beaker Settlement and Environment on the Chalk Downs of Southern England., by Michael J. Allen, published January 2005 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 71, article, pp.219-245)   View Online

This paper is dedicated to John Evans, environmental archaeologist extraordinaire, who died 14 June 2005, while this paper was in press. He continually reminded us that environmental data should address questions of people and landscape and be relevant to the understanding of Prehistory by our archaeological colleagues.
The Beaker period in north-west Europe is abound with objects, burials, and monuments, but evidence of settlement and domestic life is often absent or less easily found, and England is no exception. Despite the thousands of barrows with rich artefacts assemblages (eg, Amesbury Archer) and the numerous pits with non-domestic assemblages of placed items, evidence for houses and settlement are sparse despite the indication of increased agriculture and sedentism. This paper explores this problem on the chalklands of southern England that are rich in Beaker finds, and which are generally recognised as one of the best studied and well understood landscapes in Europe. From this study it is suggested that Beaker domestic sites are present, but are often in low lying positions on the chalk downs and have subsequently been buried by variable depths of hillwash, making them invisible to normal archaeological survey and reconnaissance.

A collection of Early Upper Palaeolithic artefacts from Beedings, near Pulborough, West Sussex and the context of similar finds from the British Isles, by Roger Jacobi, Nick Debenham and John Catt, published January 2007 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 73, article, pp.229-326)   View Online

This paper provides a first formal description of a collection of lithic artefacts unearthed during the building of a house called Beedings on a scarp crest near Pulborough in West Sussex.The discovery was probably made in 1900. The collection is very obviously multi-period, but it includes the largest group of Early Upper Palaeolithic artefacts from south-eastern England. Attributed to this time are leaf-points, end-scrapers, and burins. While recent selection has much reduced the collection it also appears to contain contemporary cores and debitage and evidence for the production of bladelets. In a British context this find is unique and in a European perspective it is one of the richest assemblages attributable to the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician technocomplex. The age of this technocomplex is poorly constrained, but in this paper it is argued to belong to the earliest part of the Upper Palaeolithic, starting earlier than the local Aurignacian. The Upper Palaeolithic material from Beedings is interpreted as having come from a hunting camp situated so as to exploit the extensive views across the western Weald.

The Valdoe: Archaeology of a Locality within the Boxgrove Paleolandscape, by Matthew Pope, Mark Roberts, Andrew Maxted and Pat Jones, published January 2009 in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol. 75, article, pp.265-304)   View Online

A programme of archaeological assessment, funded through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, was undertaken at the Valdoe Quarry in West Sussex ahead of a renewed and final stage of gravel extraction at the site. This paper gives an account of the evidence for human activity recovered in the course of this work. The analysis demonstrates that the Valdoe Quarry contained archaeology relating to the transport and modification of bifaces. These signatures formed part of wider patterns of land-use operated by the same hominin groups found at Boxgrove, within a single, developing palaeolandscape. It is concluded that further activity sites remain to be discovered within the general environs of the Valdoe and the parish of East Lavant where historically there have been surface finds of bifaces.