Doherty, A; Greatorex, C; (2016) A Middle/Late Iron Age site and Anglo-Saxon cemetery at St Anne’s Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex

Abstract

Archaeological investigations, undertaken in 1997 and 1998, revealed further evidence of an important multi-period site located on the crest and south-east-facing slope of St Anne’s Hill, Eastbourne, East Sussex Around 100 Middle/Late Iron Age storage pits were uncovered: many more than any other non-hillfort site in Sussex and with evidence that grain processing as well as storage may have been carried out at the site. Almost certainly connected are secondary religious offerings deposited within the pits, which were probably perceived as influencing the success or failure of the agricultural cycle. Many of the artefacts – including coins, agricultural tools and querns– were apparently deliberately placed, and even domestic waste like broken pottery and animal bone appears to have been subject to a highly structured pattern of deposition. Soon after the Roman conquest there was a major reorganisation of the landscape with a new field-system and trackway, perhaps as a result of the foundation of villa estates in the area. In the 5th century an Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery was established on the hill, with 193 graves and 11 urned cremations recorded during these excavations. These ranged in date from the 5th and 6th centuries to the 7th century and the accompanying grave goods suggest a community mixed in character; whilst there are examples of richly furnished burials, generally these were people without extremes of material wealth.