Late Bronze Age Settlement on Itford Hill, Sussex

Abstract

In the years between the two World Wars considerable research was done by Sussex archaeologists on the Late Bronze Age settlements of the South Downs (figs, 1 and 30). Several habitation sites were partly excavated, notably Park Brow near Worthing by Mr Garnet R. Wolseley in 1924, New Barn Down, Harrow Hill near Worthing by Dr E. Cecil Curwen in 1933, and Plumpton Plain, near Brighton, by Dr E. Cecil Curwen and Mr G. A. Holleyman in 1934, and an analysis of the pottery from these sites by Professor C. Hawkes has provided a typological and chronological basis for subsequent research.After World War II the authors, inspired by the work of Dr J. F. S. Stone on the Deverel-Rimbury Settlement on Thorny Down and of Dr G. Bersu at Little Woodbury, decided to strip completely a small group of earthworks of probable Late Bronze Age date on Itford Hill near Lewes. In the spring of 1949 the site, together with the adjacent linear earthwork and group of lynchets, was surveyed by Mr E. W. Holden and Mr G. A. Holleyman. Excavations were carried out for each of five seasons (1949–1953) by means of volunteers and with the financial backing of the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society.