Neolithic Camp in Sussex

Abstract

DISCOVERIES which will have a bearing of no little importance on the future study of the neolithic age in Britain are reported from Whitehawk Camp, near Brighton. Mr. E. Cecil Curwen, acting on behalf of the Sussex Archaeological Society, with the assistance of Miss Leslie Scott, who has worked at Maiden Castle, Dorchester, has held an archaeological watching brief while the Corporation of Brighton has been engaged in constructing a road across the camp. Whitehawk Camp, which is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Acts, is one of the largest and best surviving specimens of the neolithic camp of concentric interrupted ditches. In places, the original ramparts still stand seven feet high. The line of the road cuts the line of all four ditches on both sides of the camp, and these are now being cleared down to the bottom and the original chalk. According to a report in The Times of November 4, up to the present, the inner ditch has proved rich in neolithic pottery, also yielding great quantities of animal bones, flint flakes, saws, scrapers and a flint axe. Two small pits full of neolithic pottery and animal bones appear to be unconnected with the ditches. Another interesting discovery is a piece of chalk scored with a chess board pattern, similar to a device found on the wall of a pit shaft on Harrow Hill, near Cissbury. Several post-holes on the ramparts appear to have supported palisades, and a similar structure is indicated as forming a side wall to the entrance passage through the outer rampart. These are unique in British neolithic camps. The pottery, which is of modified Windmill Hill type and a type with whipped cord impressions, suggesting Peterborough ware (Neolithic B), should prove an important addition to existing material.