| Summary : An Itford Hill style settlement situated on a chalk hill which form part of the Sussex Downs. This takes the form of a small, north west-south east aligned oval enclosure bounded by a ditch up to circa 6 metres wide and circa 0.75 metres deep and a bank circa 4 metres wide and up to circa 0.5 metres high, the eastern side of which has been partly levelled by modern ploughing. Access to the interior was by way of a causewayed gap through the south eastern ramparts. Part excavation of the enclosure between 1952-57 showed that it was constructed in, and underwent at least one phase of development during, the Late Bronze Age. Traces of three timber round houses each circa 20 metres in diameter were discovered within the interior, and clay loom-weights found in one suggested that it was used as a weaving shed. Three contemporary multiple cremation burials were found to have been deposited in the ground beneath two of the houses and close to the enclosure entrance. The excavation also discovered evidence for an earlier, unenclosed settlement dating to the Middle Bronze Age beneath the Late Bronze Age enclosure. |
More information : (Name TQ 09050977) Late Bronze Age settlement (GT) (1)
(TQ 08920975) A Late Bronze Age farm on Cock Hill excavated
1952-7. It was contemporary with similar farms on New Barn Down
and on Blackpatch, (see TQ 00 NE 2 and 3). It comprised three
circular wooden huts, two semi-circular wooden structures and
a pond, enclosed by a bank with internal ditch. One hut has
been used for weaving. Both stock farming and agriculture were
practised. Evidence of habitation, probably temporary, in the
early part of the MBA was discovered.
An associated field system may have been largely destroyed by
mediaeval ploughing.
The farm differed from all others of the same period so far
excavated in Sussex, in two respects:-
1. It was surrounded by a penannular ditch inside a bank, like
a Henge.
2. Three LBA multiple cremations were buried under two of the
huts, and close to the entrance respectively.
EIA and Roman potsherds were found in the ditch and pond.
(see AO/LP/63/231, 232, 233) (2-4)
Centred at TQ 0892 0974. The remains generally are as planned
by Curwen and are now preserved under rough pasture. The only
evidence of a field system is a series of lynchets running
across the W-facing slopes to the NW of the farm.
Surveyed at 1/2500. Area of lynchets delineated on OS 6". (5)
The excavated evidence from Cock Hill has been re-appraised in the light of RCHME field work at both of the flint mine complexes in the vicinity (Blackpatch (TQ 00 NE 5) and Harrow Hill (TQ 01 SE 17 & 23)) during the course of a project to record traces of Neolithic flint mining in England. See the records of those sites for further details. The site has been regarded as anomalous because of its unusual shape and internal ditch. However, given the quantity of flint recovered and the unusual depositional activity, including the presence of at least 5 separate human burials, the enclosure needs to be considered in the light of post-Neolithic activity at both of the flint mine sites and also via comparison with other broadly contemporary sites in the vicinity. The published excavation report makes a reconstruction of site sequence very difficult, and insufficient artefactual data is presented to allow further interpretation of the site. In particular, the relationship between the internal features and the enclosing bank and ditch is unclear.
The bank apparently comprised a core of flint overlain by chalk rubble and soil. There is a suggestion that the inner side of the bank had been faced with flint. Post holes had been cut into the old ground surface beneath the bank at roughly 7ft intervals, but their stratigraphical relationship to the bank itself is unclear. The internal ditch contained evidence for considerable depositional activity from the Middle Bronze Age onwards, the bulk of it belonging to that period (NB much of the pottery described as LBA in the excavation report would now sit more comfortably in the MBA, some possibly earlier). Above the primary silts the fill comprised flint nodules, soil and chalk rubble plus large quantities of charcoal and decomposed organic material, plus burnt flints, animal remains, flint artefacts, pyrites nodules and large quantities of pottery. Animal remains included cattle, sheep and horse bones, plus part of a red deer skull. At one point, the skeleton of a human foetus associated with probable MBA potsherds was found.
The post and stake hole arrangements in the interior included a some which represented round houses. These were associated with loom weights, animal remains, quern fragments and LBA pottery. Other arrangements possibly represent fence lines of varying function. 3 different cremation deposits of probable MBA date were also found.
The southern part of the enclosure included a bowl-shaped depression some 30ft in diameter and 3ft deep interpreted as a pond (see TQ 00 NE 3 for a broadly contemporary enclosure with similar features). The fill comprised flints and fine black soil on a base of dry chalk sludge. Among the flints were potsherds of mainly MBA date but also of (probable) Iron Age and Roman date, plus a further skeleton of a human foetus. (6) |