Bibliography - Blackpatch flint mine
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Blackpatch Flint-Mine Excavation, 1922, by C. H. Goodman, Marian Frost, F.L.A., Eliot Curwen, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., F.S.A. and Eliot Cecil Curwen, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., published 1924 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 65, article, pp.69-111) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2150] & The Keep [LIB/500283] & S.A.S. library

A Celtic Farm on Blackpatch, by Dr Hugh Benjamin A. Ratcliffe-Densham and Mary Margaret Ratcliffe-Densham, published 1953 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 91, article, pp.69-83) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2176] & The Keep [LIB/500338] & S.A.S. library

Excavations 1978: Black Patch, East Sussex, by P. L. Drewett, published December 1978 in Sussex Archæological Society Newsletter (no. 26, article, p.160, ISSN: 0307-2568) accessible at: S.A.S. library   Download PDF

New Evidence for the Structure and Function of Middle Bronze Age Round Houses in Sussex, by Peter Drewett, published 1979 in The Archaeological Journal (vol. 136, article, pp.3-11)   View Online

Area excavation of five Middle Bronze Age Round Houses at Black Patch, Alcisten, E. Sussex, has conclusively proved that the house terrace itself was a major structural element in the house construction. The position of storage pits and artifacts confirms that the house floor consisted of the whole house terrace. The precise recording of the position of every artifact was used to define activity areas which indicate the possible function of individual houses. From this evidence it is possible to suggest the likely social organisation of the excavated compound.

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.

An Inurned Cremation from Black Patch Barrow 7, East Sussex, by Robin Holgate, published 1987 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 125, archaeological note, pp.232-234) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9994] & The Keep [LIB/500304] & S.A.S. library

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.

Flint Mines in Neolithic Britain, by Miles Russell, published 26 May 2000 (160 pp., The History Press, ISBN-10: 075241481X & ISBN-13: 9780752414812) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Rough Quarries Rocks and Hills: John Pull and the Neolithic Flint Mines of Sussex, by Miles Russell, published 2001 in Bournemouth University, School of Applied Sciences Occasional Paper 6, Oxbow Books, Oxford (article)

Middle and Late Bronze Age settlement on the South Downs : the case study of Black Patch, by Richard Quinn Tapper, 2012 at Sussex University (Ph.D. thesis)   View Online

By integrating the corpus of existing knowledge with new information gained by applying geo-archaeological techniques as well as more traditional techniques to fresh archaeological investigations at Black Patch and elsewhere, the aims of the research are to look at the economy, social organization and ritual behaviour of life in the Middle and Late Bronze Age on the South Downs in the light of modern archaeological theory to consider the questions 'Why were these areas chosen for settlement?', 'What caused their abandonment?' and 'What can we learn about the life of the people associated with the settlements?'. The combination of field walking, field survey and soil sampling has shown the presence of a Neolithic flint spread, woodland clearance and agriculture before and during the period of site settlement at Black Patch. The positioning of the Hut platforms and enclosures across existing lynchets, the modification of the existing field system, the establishment of a new one and the adoption of more intensive farming techniques (manuring, weeding and crop location and rotation) would imply a change of social order and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle for some. The existence of centrally placed hearths in huts found at Black Patch brings into doubt the existing day/night life/death metaphor currently commonly used for this period. Structured deposition points to a society concerned with agricultural fertility. The abandonment of Black Patch identified by Drewett and the dearth of later dated artefacts, at about the same time as the abandonment of the only other positively identified Deverel-Rimbury site in the immediate area, Itford Hill, suggests another change of social order, with livestock becoming more important as the Downland area around Black Patch appears then to be used only by nomadic herders. Areas to the west of the River Ouse which had been settled earlier developed more complicated specialist production sites. These have yet to be found east of the River Ouse.