Metalwork, burnt mounds and settlement on the West Sussex Coastal Plain: a contextual study.

Metalwork, burnt mounds and settlement on the West Sussex Coastal Plain: a contextual study. The burial of bronze artefacts during the Later Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the inBritain is well known (Bradley 1990: 97-154), but there has been littleattempt to investigate the find spots by systematic field survey. Recent fieldwork on the West Sussex West Sussex,nonmetropolitan county (1991 pop. 692,800), 768 sq mi (1,990 sq km), S England. A chalk ridge runs from the county's east to west edge. In the south the land flattens into a gentle plain. After early Roman invasions, the Saxons moved across Sussex. Coastal Plain has revealed somepreliminary results. The data have been obtained by investigating thepositions of known metalwork sites by fieldwalking. The initial phase ofthis investigation has involved systematic work at three locations(FIGURE 1) where the areas were walked on a 20-m grid. The evidenceindicates that the burial of Later Bronze Age metalwork deposits (singlefinds and hoards) can be directly related to the locations of burntmounds, watercourses and settlements. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The West Sussex Coastal Plain is a fiat region (FIGURE 2) framed bythe Chalk Downs and the sea. Much of the area is covered by fertileloess soils (`brickearth'). Large areas to the south of the Plainare characterized by former marsh areas and braided braid��ed?adj.1. a. Produced by or as if by braiding.b. Having braids.2. Decorated with braid.3. streams (the Rifesystem). The region would have had great potential for resourceutilization by past communities. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sites for investigation were chosen because of their proximityto present-day or former watercourses. At Bilsham the Ryebank Rife andits alluvial edge lie less than 50 m to the south of the study area. TheFerring Rife borders the southern margin of the field containing themetalwork hoard site (FIGURE 3), and at Lyons Farm, Sompting, thealluvial arm of the former `Brodewater' inlet lies less than 100 mfrom the southern boundary of the study area. All three sites producedsignificant assemblages of late prehistoric flintwork. Subsequentanalysis has shown that the major component of these assemblages may beassigned to the Later Bronze Age. Characterization of the flintwork wasbased on the earlier work of Ford et al. (1984) and is confirmed byrecent analysis by Dr Julie Gardiner of Wessex Archaeology Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest private archaeological organisations operating in the United Kingdom, based near Salisbury in WiltshireFounded in 1974 as the Trust for Wessex Archaeology by members of the earlier Wessex Archaeological Committee, it took its present (the Bilshamassemblage). The identification of dense concentrations of fire-crackedflint on, or close to the alluvial edge of these water features,strongly suggests the presence of burnt mounds (FIGURE 4) which are alsoattributed to the Later Bronze Age. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] The fieldwork shows that the burnt mound A burnt mound is a mound of shattered stones and charcoal, normally with an adjacent hearth and trough. The trough could be rock-cut, wood-lined or clay-lined to ensure it was watertight. occupies an `edge'location in the landscape, defined by the watercourse. The metalworklays close by, separating the `burnt' area from the associatedsettlement. The lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" scatters suggest that settlement or activity fociare located on adjacent rising ground. Fieldwork will now continue inWest Sussex to concentrate on the immediate environs of other metalworksites, where archaeological visibility of the ground surface ispossible. The East Anglian Fens provide another environment in which theapproach outlined here might prove rewarding. The distribution of`potboiler' sites and Later Bronze Age metalwork along the fen edgeof the Wissey Embayment (Fenland Projects 1991 and 1996) in Norfolk forexample, suggests a similar configuration of activities. Furthermore,the locational context of the recently re-excavated site of the famousIsleham Hoard in Cambridgeshire (Tim Malim pers. comm.) also appears tohave the same elements. Fieldwork will continue at further hoard sites on the SussexCoastal Plain in order to test out the integrity of these preliminaryfindings. Acknowledgements. The author would like to thank Richard Bradleyfor his continued support to this project. Thanks must also go to TimMalim of the Cambridge Archaeological Field Unit for providinginformation on the location of the Isleham Hoard. Finally, to Dave Yatesand Dr Keith Watson thanks for their help with the fieldwork and to DrJulie Gardiner for her valuable assistance in looking at a sample of theflintwork from the project. References BRADLEY, R.J. 1990 The Passage of Arms. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). . FENLAND PROJECT 1991. No. 4: Norfolk Survey, The Wissey Embaymentand Fen Causeway, East Anglian Archaeology 52: 85-8. 1996. No. 11: The Wissey Embayment: Evidence for pre-Iron AgeOccupation, East Anglian Archaeology 78: 45-8. FORD, S., R. BRADLEY, J. HAWKES & P. FISHER. 1984. Flintworkingin the Metal Age, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 3(2) (July): 157-73. DAVID David, in the BibleDavid,d. c.970 B.C., king of ancient Israel (c.1010–970 B.C.), successor of Saul. The Book of First Samuel introduces him as the youngest of eight sons who is anointed king by Samuel to replace Saul, who had been deemed a failure. J. DUNKIN, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading,Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AH, England.