More information : (TQ 444 089) Mount Caburn Camp (NR) (1)
Known locally as 'The Caburn'. The appellation 'Mount Caburn' is probably of no great antiquity. The earthwork was first excavated by Pitt-Rivers in 1877-8, who cut sections through the rampart and investigated 40 of the small depressions and the large pit within the camp. The material obtained, of the EIA, has been lost. In 1925-6 it was surveyed by R P R Williamson; three trial trenches were dug and the remaining 99 untouched depressions were excavated. The pits served probably for stores and refuse, and finds included British and Roman coins, iron slag and crucibles, spindle-whorls, beads, slingstones and pottery, mainly La Tene II. The pits were from Hallstatt to RB with the densest period of occupation La Tene II (250-50 BC).
In 1937-8 the Brighton and Hove Arch Soc excavated the ramparts and gateway (see plan) and through the southern defences. Two hut sites and a 'Norman hearth' were uncovered near the gateway. General conclusions regarding phases of occupation are as follows :
1. An open village before 100 BC. 2. Fortified 'town' 100 BC to Roman times. 3. Fortification at the time of the Roman conquest. 4. Local reconstruction at an unknown date (probably Saxon). 5. Mid-12thc refortification as an Adulterine castle.
The 'several' IA, tin coins (5) found in Pitt-Rivers' excavations were Evans type H:2 and H:5. A further six of similar type were found during the 1925 excavations, (2) 5 in pits and one on the surface of the N rampart. These finds are listed by Dolley under the British distribution of Speculum coins (Class 1). (2-7)
(See annotated 25" cut-out plan and cross-section). (8)
Mount Caburn Hill Fort (LB) (9)
Mount Caburn, IA fort, sub-circular in plan, averaging 130.0m in diameter. To the SE, E and W, very steep natural slopes fall away to the valley of the River Ouse and to side coombes, and the earthwork comprises a long steep lynchet-like scarp with a narrow terrace at the foot, probably a silted-up ditch and low outer bank. To the N, the work overlooks a ridge and the defences are increased and comprise a very large rampart with equally large outer ditch which as a counterscarp bank, and a lesser inner ditch with counterscarp bank.
An original entrance leads around the E end of the multiple defences and is causewayed across the inner ditch. A second causewayed entrance through the NW side is probably not an original feature. Several pits within the eastern end of the outer ditch are probably late mutilations (? flint pits).
Published 1:2500 survey revised. Representative collection of finds on display in Barbican House Museum, Lewes. (10)
One complete pot (restored) and 7 decorated sherds were discovered. They are deposited in the Barbican House Museum, Lewes and the museum at Farnham in Dorset (?). (11)
A deposit of calcined boned was found with two pottery vessels beneath the primary rampart, but on top of an earlier counterscarp bank. It was sealed by a turf-line from the rampart above. (12)
The site is scheduled. (13)
Of the EIA (Early Iron Age) material noted above in sources 2-7 as being lost, the majority is actually in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. A full list of the Caburn objects in the Museum can be found at . (14)
This earthwork described by the previous authotrities was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: South Downs Project.(15)
|