| Abstract: |
The volume is dedicated to Eric Holden in recognition of his work in Sussex archaeology (pp 1-2, C F Tebbutt). Joan Sheldon (3-7) provides a discussion of the environmental background - pedological and vegetational history and palaeoecology. A G Woodcock (8-14) takes selected examples from the Lower and Middle Palaeo to provide a chronological and typological framework for the county; there is also a very little Upper Palaeo material. The Mesolithic is taken by R Jacobi (15-22) whose cluster analysis separated a 'Maglemose' style or Earlier Mesolithic, a microlithic triangle-and-rod Later Meso, and a third group, intermediate in date and unique to this area, from Horsham-Weald with its analogies in the French-Belgian Meso of c 7000. Ashdown Forest has a rich potential for providing an absolute chronology. In Neo Sussex P Drewett (23-9) defines some socially cohesive groups occupying adjacent territories along the South Downs, using a mixed farming economy and in several cases operating deep flint mines. Ann Ellison (30-7) defines two classes of BA pottery, for MBA and LBA respectively; among the settlements, Highdown Hill is distinctive in form and in metalwork and may have had a redistributive role. At Itford Hill four successive occupation units are defined, the third contemporary with the cemetery barrow. The Iron Age hillforts of the Weald are discussed by J Money (38-40) with particular reference to iron-making, while the settlement patterns and economy of the Downs and its coastal plain in the Iron Age are taken by O Bedwin (41-51). The Roman town of Chichester and its relationship to the surrounding countryside is Alec Down's subject (52-8), while Henry Cleere (59-63) summarizes the evidence for Roman iron-making in the Weald and suggests that an imperial estate covered much of the Weald. Moving on to Saxon Sussex, Martin Bell (64-9) considers the evidence for settlement and burial ground (Bishopstone providing a rare instance of both); a complex economic strategy is apparent, and the pattern for future settlement was well laid. The Saxon and medieval mints and moneyers are Caroline Dudley's topic (70-7), while the possibility of church archaeology helping the understanding of medieval settlement, both rural and urban, is set out by Fred Aldsworth (78-83), who also deals with the pre-Conquest church structures. For medieval Sussex, P Brandon (84-6) selects a few of the many issues needing study and presents his theory of Wealden-edge colonization. David Freke (87-92) gives an account of the development of urbanization, AD 900-1500. The late medieval housing of the Rape of Hastings is compared by David Martin (93-6) with evidence for land-holding, and some economic conclusions are drawn from such factors as cost-cutting in building design. |
