Struck Flint

Between 2006 and 2010, Archaeology South-East carried out a series of large scale excavations in advance of development to the north-east of the coastal town of Peacehaven, East Sussex. The excavations, which amount to some 36.2 hectares, have provided a rare opportunity to examine prehistoric and Roman landuse in the South Downs on an unprecedented scale. Key findings from earlier periods includes one of the largest groups of Early Neolithic pit in Sussex and an extensive, organised Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monumental landscape, including important new evidence for the emergence of land division in Sussex during the earlier second millennium BC. Later Bronze Age evidence includes extensive field systems, a complete Middle Bronze Age settlement and associated cemetery, and a rare Late Bronze Age D-shaped building. An important aspect of the Iron Age evidence comprises an extremely unusual group of Middle Iron Age rectangular buildings which may be related to the seasonal upland pasturing of livestock, following a period of abandonment. These buildings became the core of an extensive network of enclosures and trackways used for the corralling and management of livestock. Elements of this enclosure system survived into the early Roman period, when a small farmstead was established within one of the enclosures. This volume includes a consideration of the wider palaeogeographic context of the excavations, followed by detailed description of the results by period and discussion of their significance in a local, regional and national context.

Around the ancient track. Archaeological excavations for the Brighton and Hove waste water treatment works and adjacent housing at Peacehaven, East Sussex. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293633993_Around_the_ancient_track_Archaeological_excavations_for_the_Brighton_and_Hove_waste_water_treatment_works_and_adjacent_housing_at_Peacehaven_East_Sussex [accessed Oct 09 2017].