EARLY MAN 



Age. There are several in the neighbourhood of Eastbourne, Lewes, 

 near the Devil's Dyke, Brighton, and north of Chichester. Some have 

 never yet been properly examined, but remains of actual burials, pottery, 

 etc., have been recorded from barrows at Alfriston, Beddingham, East 

 Blatchington, Hove, Lewes, Rottingdean, Storrington, etc. There are 

 several pieces of sepulchral pottery in the Lewes and Brighton Museums. 

 In the Lewes Museum are some very interesting sepulchral urns found 

 at Mount Harry near Lewes.' 



In the British Museum are two Bronze Age palstaves and one 

 socketed celt found in Sussex, but the exact locality is unknown. 



The Prehistoric Iron Age 



The period beginning with the introduction of iron and ending 

 with the appearance of the Romans in Britain is in some respects the 

 most interesting of all the prehistoric past. Although the antiquities 

 are less numerous than those of two of the earlier periods, they bear 

 witness to a higher degree of culture. The pottery assumes elegant and 

 delicate shapes ; the metals are elaborately w^orked ; and an extremely 

 beautiful form of conventional decoration makes its appearance. Among 

 other clear evidences of advance in culture are the establishment of a 

 system of metallic currency, the development of the art of enamelling, 

 the institution of kingly government, and the introduction of a form of 

 religious faith. 



The antiquities of this age found in Sussex illustrate all these phases 

 of culture in a more or less complete manner. Commencing with 

 metallic objects, attention may be drawn to what is supposed to be a 

 gold toe ring ploughed up on land at Bormer near Lewes, and now in 

 the British Museum. It is formed of two bars of gold, square or rect- 

 angular in section, and thick in the middle with diminishing ends. 

 These bars are twisted in the way one usually finds torques are twisted, 

 and the four ends are amalgamated at the thinnest part of the ring. 

 The ring may possibly be as late as the Roman period, but the style of 

 manufacture is certainly earlier. 



A celebrated discovery of gold ornaments was made in January 

 1863, at Mountfield,^ a parish situated 4 miles north from Battle. A 

 ploughman in the course of his ordinary work turned up a long piece 

 of metal twisted in three grooves, about a yard long, and with trumpet- 

 like terminations. He also found a great number of rings, some of 

 larger size than the others. The larger kind were round and not com- 

 pletely closed. Altogether the man found about 1 1 lbs. avoirdupois 

 of metal, which he, supposing it to be merely old brass, sold for the sum 

 of 5^. bd. Finally the metal passed into the hands of Messrs. Brown, 

 the refiners in Cheapside, they purchasing it as Barbary gold for the 

 sum of ^^529. The deposit turned up by the plough at Mountfield 



' See list of barrows, etc., in the article on Ancient Earthworks. 

 '•^ Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lend. (ser. 2), ii. 347-S. 

 I 321 41 



