Bibliography - Caburn
Bibliography Home

Excavations at Mount Caburn Camp, Near Lewes, Conducted in September and October 1877 and July 1878, by Augustus Lane Fox, published 1878 accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Excavations at Mount Caburn Camp, near Lewes, conducted in September and October, 1877, and July, 1878, by Col. Augustus Lane Fox, published 1881 in Archaeologia; or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity (vol. 46, issue 2, article, pp.423-495)   View Online

Although many places from their extent may have possessed greater importance in early times, no British camp is perhaps better known to ourselves than Mount Caburn. Situated, not in the midst of a deserted heath as some of them are, but in the centre of a populous district, a very conspicuous feature from the town of Lewes, and close to the junction of the railways from Eastbourne and Newhaven, it has necessarily attracted the attention of all who pass that way. Various conjectures have been hazarded in local histories as to its origin and uses, and more numerous by far must have been the unrecorded speculations of the curious during the long period that Lewes has figured in history.

Excavations In the Caburn, near Lewes, by Eliot Curwen, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., F.S.A. and E. Cecil Curwen, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., published 1927 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 68, article, pp.1-56) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2153] & The Keep [LIB/500286] & S.A.S. library

Discovery of a Carthaginian Coin near the Caburn, by Sidney Spokes, M.R.C.S., published 1927 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 68, article, pp.57-59) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2153] & The Keep [LIB/500286] & S.A.S. library

Old People of Mount Caburn, a peep into the past, by E. Cecil Curwen, published 1927 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. I no. 1, article, pp.10-15) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2303][Lib 8326] & The Keep [LIB/500137]

The Caburn. Its Date, and a Fresh Find, by E. Cecil Curwen, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., F.S.A., published 1931 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 72, article, pp.151-156) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2157] & The Keep [LIB/500357] & S.A.S. library

Ranscombe Camp, by J. A. Hollingdale, published November 1934 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. V no. 4, note, pp.124-125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2204][Lib 8223][Lib 8862] & The Keep [LIB/500207] & S.A.S. library

Excavations in the Ramparts and Gateway of the Caburn, August - October 1937, by Arthur E. Wilson, published 1938 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 79, article, pp.169-194) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500350] & S.A.S. library

Excavations at the Caburn, 1938., by A. E. Wilson, D.Litt., F.R.Hist.S., published 1939 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 80, article, pp.193-213) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2165] & The Keep [LIB/500349] & S.A.S. library

The Caburn Pottery and its Implications, by C. F. C. Hawkes, F.S.A., published 1939 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 80, article, pp.217-262) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2165] & The Keep [LIB/500349] & S.A.S. library

An Old Name for the Caburn, by Philippa Revill, published November 1958 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XV no. 2, article, pp.43-45) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8233] & The Keep [LIB/500217] & S.A.S. library

An Old Name for the Caburn (S.N.Q. xv, 43), by T. Gurney Stedman, published November 1959 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XV no. 4, note, p.136) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8233] & The Keep [LIB/500217] & S.A.S. library

Excavations at Ranscombe Camp 1959-1960, by George Philip Burstow and G. A. Holleyman, published 1964 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 102, article, pp.55-67) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2187] & The Keep [LIB/500327] & S.A.S. library

The Prehistoric land-use and human ecology of the Malling-Caburn Downs. two Late Neolithic/early Bronze Age sites beneath Colluvial Sequences, by Michael J. Allen, published 1995 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 133, article, pp.19-44) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13209] & The Keep [LIB/500288] & S.A.S. library

Using elderly data bases. Iron Age Pit Deposits at the Caburn, East Sussex, and Related Sites, by Sue Hamilton, published 1998 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 136, article, pp.23-40) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13921] & The Keep [LIB/500297] & S.A.S. library

Marking time and making space: excavations and landscape studies at the Caburn Hillfort, East Sussex, 1996-98, by Peter L. Drewett and Sue Hamilton, published 1999 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 137, article, pp.7-38) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14439] & The Keep [LIB/500291] & S.A.S. library   View Online

The Caburn dominates the lower Ouse valley in East Sussex. Its use and significance have waxed and waned but its unique dome shape against the skyline must have helped define peoples' sense of place throughout time. This article, based on the first three field seasons of the Society's project, examines the surfaces of the hill, the use of space on the hill and through time. In prehistory the Caburn may have been a special place, perhaps a sacred hill, while in post-Roman times its strategic location was utilized in times of threat.

Vegetation history of the English chalklands: a mid-Holocene pollen sequence from the Caburn, East Sussex, by Martyn P. Waller and Sue Hamilton, published March 2000 in Journal of Quaternary Science (vol. 15, issue 3, article, pp.253-272)   View Online

A pollen diagram has been produced from the base of the Caburn (East Sussex) that provides a temporally and spatially precise record of vegetation change on the English chalklands during the mid-Holocene (ca. 7100 to ca. 3800 cal. yr BP). During this period the slopes above the site appear to have been well-wooded, with vegetation analogous to modern Fraxinus-Acer-Mercurialis communities in which Tilia was also a prominent constituent. However, scrub and grassland taxa such as Juniperus communis, Cornus sanguinea and Plantago lanceolata are also regularly recorded along with, from ca. 6000 cal. yr BP onwards, species specific to Chalk grassland (e.g. Sanguisorba minor). This supports suggestions that elements of Chalk grassland persisted in lowland England through the Holocene. Such communities are most likely to have occupied the steepest slopes, although the processes that maintained them are unclear. Human interference with vegetation close to the site may have begun as early as ca. 6350 cal. yr BP and initially involved a woodland management practice such as coppicing. From the primary Ulmus decline (ca. 5700 cal. yr BP) onwards, phases of limited clearance accompanied by cereal cultivation occurred. Taxus baccata was an important component of the woodland which regenerated between these phases.

Vegetation history of the English chalklands: a mid-Holocene pollen sequence from the Caburn, East Sussex, by Martyn P. Waller and Sue Hamilton, published March 2000 in Journal of Quaternary Science (vol. 15, issue 3, article, pp.253-272)   View Online

A pollen diagram has been produced from the base of the Caburn (East Sussex) that provides a temporally and spatially precise record of vegetation change on the English chalklands during the mid-Holocene (ca. 7100 to ca. 3800 cal. yr BP). During this period the slopes above the site appear to have been well-wooded, with vegetation analogous to modern Fraxinus-Acer-Mercurialis communities in which Tilia was also a prominent constituent. However, scrub and grassland taxa such as Juniperus communis, Cornus sanguinea and Plantago lanceolata are also regularly recorded along with, from ca. 6000 cal. yr BP onwards, species specific to Chalk grassland (e.g. Sanguisorba minor). This supports suggestions that elements of Chalk grassland persisted in lowland England through the Holocene. Such communities are most likely to have occupied the steepest slopes, although the processes that maintained them are unclear. Human interference with vegetation close to the site may have begun as early as ca. 6350 cal. yr BP and initially involved a woodland management practice such as coppicing. From the primary Ulmus decline (ca. 5700 cal. yr BP) onwards, phases of limited clearance accompanied by cereal cultivation occurred. Taxus baccata was an important component of the woodland which regenerated between these phases.