A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



gether brought round and hooked over the open loop in a manner which 

 will be easily seen from the accompanying engraving, but is difficult to 

 describe. 



A hoard of bronze implements, deposited in a coarse earthen pot, 

 was found near Worthing in 1877. The hoard, which comprised 

 nearly thirty examples of looped palstaves, some socketed celts, and some 

 lumps of metal, is now in the collection of Sir John Evans, K.C.B. 



Other minor articles of bronze found in what may be called the 

 Brighton district are a palstave and disc found at Wolstanbury Hill, 

 a prominent point on the South Downs 7 or 8 miles nearly north of 

 Brighton ; a winged celt found at Clayton Hill ; and looped palstaves 

 and spear-heads discovered at Hangleton Downs. 



The Bronze Age antiquities in the Lewes district, apart from 

 earthworks such as tumuli and camps, comprise a very charming 

 example of a decorated flanged celt ; a spear-head now in the British 

 Museum said to have been found in a tumulus ; ' a long pin of 

 bronze found in a barrow near Lewes ;^ and a pin with a long oval 

 ring-like head found between Lewes and Brighton.^ 



About midway between Lewes and Eastbourne, where the present 

 village of Wilmington lies under the shoulder of the South Downs, 

 an interesting hoard of Bronze Age antiquities was found in 1861. 

 The objects, which, as in the case of the Worthing hoard, were 

 deposited in a pot of coarse earthenware, comprised thirty-three bronze 

 articles, mainly socketed and looped celts and looped palstaves. The 

 implements were mostly worn or broken when buried, but when found 

 they had not suffered from oxidation in any material degree, and they 

 are now preserved in the Lewes Museum. Unfortunately the earthen 

 pot was destroyed by the workmen. 



In the year 1807 a collection of extremely important antiquities 

 obtained from the sea-shore at Beachy Head, Eastbourne,' was exhibited 

 by Mr. Holt at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London. 

 They comprised (i) four bracelets of pure gold ranging in weight from 

 3 oz. I dwt. to 16 dwt. 4 gr., and of elegant form without ornamenta- 

 tion ; (2) the base of a bronze sword blade pierced with seven holes for 

 fastening to the handle ; (3) three palstaves ; (4) two socketed celts ; 

 and (5) three lumps of pure copper. All these are now in the British 

 Museum. Perhaps one of the most significant things about this dis- 

 covery is the occurrence of gold ornaments for personal wear in associ- 

 ation with implements of baser metal but of characteristic Bronze Age 

 forms, an association which forms another proof of the knowledge of 

 gold in the Bronze Age. 



The celebrated hoard of gold ornaments found at Mountfield was 

 probably of the Prehistoric Iron Age, and will therefore be mentioned 

 under that section of this article. 



Sussex possesses many barrows or sepulchral mounds of the Bronze 



' Hora^ Ferales, pi. vi. fig. 28. - Sussex Arch. Coll. ii. 260. 



3 Ibid. ii. 265. " .//■,:/;. xvi. 363, pi. 68. 



320 



