Founded 1906
|
|
* Original Information April 2008 * Ovingdean added 4th June 2008 * Peacehaven added 16th June 2008 * Ovingdean added 18th August 2008 * Varley Hall added 6th October 2008 * Alington (Inturem Report) added 9th November 2008 * Southwick Dec 08
EXCAVATIONS AT PEACEHAVEN APRIL 2008 Members of the BHAS Field Unit joined CCE student Sue Birks, from Sussex University, to assist her with the excavation of a Bronze Age barrow on Peacehaven Heights. The project is part of Sue's MA programme. The barrow is very close to the cliff edge and is gradually being eroded away. The excavation only commenced after approval by English Heritage and the landowners. A group of local archaeologists from the BHAS and MSFAT teams, assisted by others, removed the north/west quadrant of this very substantial feature. Earlier excavations in 2007 had found that the ancient burial mound had been used during the Second World War for military purposes. Those excavations revealed two slit trenches that had effectively removed large quantities of the interior of the earthworks. This season a mechanical digger was used to remove the back fill from the previous excavations and new investigation began on the lower levels. The mound is created from local sand/clay deposits (known as Woolwich Beds) that cover the chalk to a depth of 16ft in this area, and are very easy to trowel. There were two distinct lower layers of flint nodules, but at irregular intervals around the barrow. Among the untouched surface flint nodules were hundreds of pieces of worked flint. The majority of the flint work was waste flakes but tools including scrapers and blades were also recovered as well as some cores, an axe roughout and an arrow head. The worked flint comprised pieces from differing periods with many Late Neolithic pieces being mixed in with the Bronze Age flakes recovered from the upper layers and Mesolithic flint work was found in the lower surfaces close to the hard clay bedrock. This suggests that residual flint from earlier times had been scooped up along with the Bronze Age flint and soil from the surrounding area and used to make up the mound. Some 40 pieces of pottery were also recovered which is prehistoric and crudely made, and the initial dating does tend to suggest that it is Bronze Age with some pieces possibly being Beaker. A single rim sherd does tend to suggest that during a later Roman period the burial mound was still the focus of some attention. The barrow failed to produce any evidence for a central burial although a number of small pits containing burnt stone, charcoal and pot could have been cremation pits. However no bone survived probably due to the acidic nature of the soil. A number of stake and post holes were found which may indicate grave markers or some funerary structure, although as only one quadrant has so far been excavated and further excavation is needed to make sense of these features. Sue Birks will now be working on the excavation report and will hopefully produce a copy of her dissertation for the website in the not too distant future. It is possible that BHAS may return to Peacehaven to remove the east section of the barrow, the seaward sides being too dangerous, as the burial mound is likely to disappear in the near future. John Funnell & Sue Birks
Excavations at Varley Halls 2008 In August 2008 members of the BHAS Field Unit joined Lisa Fisher, a student at Sussex University, to assist her with her MA project excavation at Varley Halls, Coldean, Brighton. The area has been the subject of intense archaeological activity over the past decade. Prior to the creation of the Brighton bypass a major excavation found the remains of a Bronze Age settlement at Dowsview. (Rudling). A second excavation, conducted before the building of Varley Halls of Residence, uncovered another Bronze Age settlement, less than a kilometre to the east of Downsview.(Greig) Fieldwalking has recovered flintwork, flint tools, fire cracked flint, Iron Age and Roman pottery. The finds clearly indicating that this area was well utilised during ancient times (Hartridge et al) (Funnell). Aerial photographs clearly indicate a number of linear features in the triangular shaped field that lies between the Bronze Age sites at Downsview and Varley Halls. In 2007 Lisa Fisher and members of the BHAS team conducted a geophysical survey of the field with extremely interesting results. A significant linear feature noted on the aerial photographs was also very prevalent in the images produced by resistivity surveying. The 2008 excavations were an investigation of this extremely visible linear feature, believed to be the vestiges of a ploughed out lynchet, and a study of the environmental evidence from the earliest deposits. The excavation consisted of one major trench measuring 10 metres in length by 1 metre in width, later widened to 2 metres in width at various locations along the length. The finds from the excavation were recorded three dimensionally for accurate locations. It would be possible to create a very accurate density image from the data used. Another two small trenches were excavated to examine a number of other anomalies noted in the geophysical survey of 2007.
Excavations at Southwick During the latter part of 2008 members of the BHAS Field Unit joined Giles Standing to assist with his excavations at Southwick. Giles organised the small excavation in the playing field area of Manor Hall Middle School as part of the National Archaeology Week in July. The excavation was preceded by a resistivity survey conducted by the Worthing Archaeological Society over a large part of the field. The equipment was borrowed from the Sussex Archaeological Society and Archaeology South East. The location of the excavation is only a short distance from the substantial Roman villa excavated in the 1930's, which was dated to the first century A.D. The excavation revealed a flint constructed Roman wall, without mortar, and a chalk floor. The finds from the fills of the various features included animal bones, oyster shells, Roman bricks, roofing tile and pottery of both Iron Age and Roman periods. A number of unidentified iron objects were also recovered. Members of the BHAS field unit who assisted were Dot McBrien and Linda Wright who live locally. Susan Birks and Keith Butler went along to plan and draw the sections prior to the back filling. It is possible that a new excavation will be conducted some time in the future.
|
||||||||||||
|
|
