| More information : (Centred: TQ 33030477) WHITE HAWK CAMP. (1)
A Neolithic causewayed enclosure situated on Brighton racecourse. The earthworks have suffered badly from incursions by the racecourse, various minor roads and allotment gardens. The site was surveyed in 1928 and excavated in 1929, 1932-33 and 1935 under the direction of EC Curwen, and with the exception of a small collection of EBA pottery, all the pottery found is Neolithic. Other finds included burials, flint, bone and stone tools, antler combs, chalk cups etc. In Brighton Museum.(2-5)
Neolithic causewayed camp. Present condition shown on sketch plan. Approx site of Beaker Pit plotted from plan (Auth 6) and centred at TQ 32950469. (6)
Ne causewayed camp as described by Authy 2. The extant parts are largely under rough pasture or downland grass. Except to the S, the banks have been reduced to lynchet-like scarps, ranging in height from 1.0m on the E side to 2.0m on the W side. The work is generally in poor condition. Published 1:1250 survey revised. Finds from the site are in Brighton Museum, Acc Nos 1929-R3162, 1933-R3688, 1935-R4100. Some representative pottery and two human skeletons are on display. (7-8)
Whitehawk causewayed enclosure consists of 4 concentric rings of interrupted ditches, each apparently accompanied by an internal bank. Curwen's survey of 1928 was undertaken largely by means of "percussion with an 8lb rammer" with subsequent amendments made in the light of excavation. Curwen also seems to have made use of an unpublished Ms. sketch plan of 1821 to which he refers in his account of the 1935 excavations.
The outer circuit is incomplete on the eastern side where the hill falls away fairly steeply. There are also indications of ditches turning off radially from this outer ditch at the NE, SW and SE, although these remain untested by anything other than Curwen's "ramming". Traces of a possible 5th circuit were also noted during the survey to the north, Curwen suggesting AP evidence supports this assertion. In 1935, during levelling for a road to the south east of the enclosure, two features interpreted as small ditches were observed in section, one 55-60ft SE of the outer ditch, the second a further 140ft away. Curwen speculated that these may represent fragmentary traces of a 5th and possibly 6th circuit.
The enclosure itself is approximately oval in shape. The outer (4th) circuit of interrupted ditches encloses an area of c. 11.5 acres. Max. diameter is c. 900ft N-S. The enclosure is not located on the highest part of the hill, and neither do the earthworks follow the natural contours of the hill. The ditches appear to be more frequently interrupted by causeways than the banks.
Excavations in 1929 and 1932-3 concentrated on segments of ditch with little investigation of areas in between. However the 1935 season, conducted in advance of road-building, examined a stretch c. 850ft long and 12-56ft wide running NW-SE across the centre of the site. Work in all 3 seasons showed the ditch segments to be of varying width and depth, and the causeways to be of similarly variable dimensions. Ditch sections suggest some recutting occurred, while at least part of the 3rd circuit may have been preceded by a shallower ditch running along the same line. The outermost ditch appears to have been the most substantial.
Finds from the ditches included large quantities of Neolithic pottery, particularly from the two innermost circuits, plus numerous flints including polished axes, arrowheads, scrapers and other tools plus numerous flakes. In addition there were several objects of worked chalk and various bone and antler implements. Large quantities of animal bone were also reported, with cattle the most prominent, followed by pig, sheep/goat, and deer antler. A complete roe deer skeleton was found at the base of a pit cut into a raised chalk platform in the outer ditch. Human remains included various skull fragments and other bones as well as 4 complete skeletons, including a "grave" containing a young woman and an infant.
Many of the finds are generally seen as representing discrete deposits of material indicating fairly short term activities or occupation. The outer pair of ditches tend to contain this debris in their primary silts, in contrast to the inner pair which, although producing larger quantities of artefacts, tended to contain less material at the lowest levels. (2-5, 9-15)
Land snails collected during Curwen's excavations were re-examined more recently along with samples from other Neolithic enclosures on the Sussex Downs. The Whitehawk samples proved to be rather limited in quality for environmental reconstruction, largely due to the means of collection (ie by hand during excavation) although a strong element of shade-loving species, suggestive of damp woodland and scrub habitats, was noted. (16)
Evidence for post-Neolithic activity at Whitehawk is rather limited (see also TQ 30 SW 11). Beaker sherds, described by Gibson as representing up to 3 All-Over-Combed plus 1 All-Over-Incised vessels as well as rusticated wares, were found in a pit close to the southern tip of the 3rd circuit of ditches (this is the "Beaker Pit" referred to by Auth 6). Sherds attributed by Curwen to La Tene III came from the upper fill of the outer ditch on the NW side of the enclosure. (4,17)
Development work in 1991 to the west of the causewayed enclosure (exact location not given) revealed part of a ditch of Neolithic date. A 30m length was excavated, including the ditch's western terminal. (18-19)
Gardiner suggests that Whitehawk, with its four substantial interrupted ditches, internal features and possible gate structure may have been essentially a fortified settlement (20).
Between February 1993 and January 1994, RCHME carried out an analytical earthwork survey of the site (21), following a request from English Heritage and Sussex County Council. The archaeological history of the site was subsequently reviewed in order to include Whitehawk Camp in the national project to record Enclosure and Industry in the Neolithic (Event record 923509). Limited black and white ground photography was also carried out subsequently.
The earthworks are essentially as described by previous sources. Both the banks and the ditches of the four main circuits can be traced easily. The overall plan suggests that these may represent (at least) two separate phases. The final plan also hints that other circuits may have been added eccentrically. The tangential ditches first recorded by Curwen appear to be amongst the latest additions, and may be Bronze Age cross-ridge dykes. An anomalous oval mound on the north side of the second circuit, recorded as an earthwork by Curwen, may possibly represent a long barrow.
Geophysical surveys were commissioned from Geophysical Surveys of Bradford (22). These were adversely affected by nearby metal structures and the large quantities of ferrous debris strewn across the site, but were able to confirm certain sections of the circuits, and the course of the tangential ditch. Some of the ferrous disturbance clearly corresponds to metallic debris thrown into ditch segments.
For further details, see RCHME Level 3 Client Report and earthwork plan at 1:1000 scale, plus photographs, together with Bradford geophysical survey report, held in archive. (21-22)
Full details of the 1991-3 excavations. (23)
Rescue excavations were carried out during the construction of housing development at the south-western edge of the scheduled area of Whitehawk Camp. The results of this investigation and subsequent watching briefs facilitated a reassessment of the constructional sequence of the monument. (24)
A watching brief was carried out during development works, some of which occurred within the area of Whitehawk Camp. The excavations revealed several features of possible archaeological significance. These included two linear features, one of which may have formed part of the outer circuit of ditch of Whitehawk camp. The finds recovered from the excavations consisted of a single sherd of prehistoric pottery and two waste flint flakes. (25)
Scheduled Monument. Despite some damage caused by road construction, Whitehawk Camp causewayed enclosure survives well, the presence of at least four rings of defences making it an extremely rare form of this type of monument. The monument, which falls into two separate areas, is situated in a saddle between two low hilltops on the chalk of the South Downs. To the east and west are steep slopes which provide extensive views from the site in each direction.
The oval enclosure survives as an enclosed area c.100m across surrounded by a series of four concentric banks with associated interrupted ditches and evidence for further ditches. Two sections of the innermost bank survive as visible earthwork features up to 9m wide and 0.5m high. The ditch which runs along the outside of this bank can still be seen in places as a slight depression, having become largely infilled over the years. There are no traces of a bank between the inner and second ditches which are between 6m and 10m apart. A short length of upstanding bank, 9m wide and 0.5m high, survives on the northern edge of the second ditch, suggesting that on the secondcircuit the bank was external to the ditch. The third bank is the most complete and survives up to 11m wide and 0.7m high to the east and 1.5m high to the west.
An interrupted ditch, of which there are slight visible traces up to 5m wide, runs around the outside of this bank except to the north-east, where the area has been levelled during the construction of the Brighton race-course. The distance between the second and third ditches is c.30m. The fourth bank appears to have only been constructed in the north, west and south, with the scarp slope to the east providing natural demarcation in that area. The outer ditch is visible in places as a slight depression up to 10 wide. Fragments of a fifth ditch to the north, and a fifth and sixth ditch to the south-east, were located during road construction in 1935, although it is not thought that these were ever complete circuits. In addition, extensions to the fourth ditch have been discovered to the north-east, south-east and south-west, cutting off the higher land to the north and south.
In 1935, in advance of the construction of a road, Curwen excavated a trench across the site from north-west to south-east. The inner ditch contained the greatest number of finds, the excavator recording it as half-filled with broken pottery, bones and general domestic refuse. The second ditch was similar in nature. In the third ditch two complete female skeletons were found and fragments of at least six other individuals, while in the outer ditch there were virtually no finds. Where surviving banks were excavated evidence of a line of posts constructed along the top of the bank, forming a palisade, was found. The ditches appeared to be primarily dug as quarry ditches for the construction of the rampart and were not intended to be defensive in their own right.
The south-west extension of the fourth ditch was investigated in the 1990s and remains of the fourth bank located further to the north. (26) [For online information on this designation see also source 28 below]
Recent research into the dating of causewayed enclosures has indicated that the four circuits were built between the middle of the 37th century and the end of the 36th century cal BC. The major period of construction may have been confined to the second half of the 37th century cal BC. Overall, Whitehawk was in use for probably 155-230 years. The south-west tangential ditch is a later prehistoric accretion, perhaps a cross-ridge dyke. The status of the north-east tangential ditch, which, unlike this one, is clearly causewayed, remains to be determined. Significantly the molluscan fauna was overwhelmingly made up of open-country species, indicating that the ditches were dug and filled in an essentially grassland environment. This contrasts with the faunas from other causewayed enclosures in Sussex, most of which seem to have been built in short-lived clearings in woodland.
(27)
At the time of recording in 2011, the designation (scheduling) noted in source 26 above is available online via the National Heritage List for England. (28)
The earthworks of this causewayed enclosure are visible on lidar and these were mapped as part of the Changing Chalk, Downs from Above Project (29)
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