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Designations

• Scheduled Monument 1012497: NEOLITHIC CAUSEWAYED ENCLOSURE ON COMBE HILL
• SHINE: Combe Hill: bowl barrow & Neolithic causewayed enclosure

Summary

A Neolithic causewayed enclosure surviving as well-preserved earthworks and finds indicating later activity on site.

Monument Types

• CAUSEWAYED ENCLOSURE (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• FINDSPOT (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• FINDSPOT (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• FINDSPOT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FINDSPOT (Modern - 1901 AD to 2050 AD)

Description

(TQ 574022) Neolithic Camp (NR). (1)
Combe Hill Camp consists of an oval ring of interrupted ditches and bank with an interrupted outlier on the W and traces of another on the E and SE. In each case the bank is remarkable in being interrupted almost as frequently as the ditch, which is unusual, even in Neolithic camps. (2)
Excavation on a small area on the W side of the inner ring by Reginald Musson for Eastbourne NH & AS in 1949. (See plan). The ditch on both sides of a causeway was examined, and the causeway and adjacent bank explored for post-holes without finding any. The ditch S of the causeway yielded nearly 1000 sherds of Ebbsfleet ware, but there was no Neolithic 'A' pottery. Finds included a leaf arrowhead, a flint scraper, and some 400 flakes, in addition to grain-rubbers, animal bones and charcoal. (3)
A bi-vallate causewayed camp situated toward the western end of Combe Hill: generally as described and planned by Musson. It is under pasture, though gorse has encroached onto it, and the outer rampart on the S side is no longer recognisable. At TQ 5739 0218 crossing a footpath is a vestigial scarp, 0.3m maximum height, which is visible for a distance of about 15.0m before it is lost in impenetrable gorse. It appears to be concentric to the two ramparts of the camp at a distance of c 30.0m, and could be a third line, though no ditch is evident. Alternatively it could be a lynchet (See TQ 50 SE 16). Published survey (25") revised. (4)
Combe Hill was first identified by Mrs Alexander Keiller in the late 1920s as being a possible Neolithic enclosure. As a result the earthworks were surveyed c1928 by Curwen and included in his paper on Neolithic Camps (5,6).
Subsequent to Musson, further excavations were undertaken at Combe Hill by V Seton Williams. The results are unpublished (7).
Reference to unpublished Neolithic pottery from Combe Hill in Lewes Museum (8).
A chalk object described as possibly representing "a stylized or simple rough out for a phallic symbol" and bearing a number of incised lines was found "while walking on the Combe Hill enclosure" in May 1983 (9).
Soil samples from Musson's excavation were examined as part of research into the environmental background of the South Downs during the Neolithic. The number of snail shells retrieved from the Combe Hill samples was small but the results do not contradict the general conclusion that the Downs were wooded at the time that enclosures such as Combe Hill were being constructed (10).
(TQ 5750 0222) In March 1995, RCHME carried out an analytical earthwork survey of the causewayed enclosure on Combe Hill as part of the Project to record Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic Period (Event record 923509). The Bronze Age barrows in the immediate vicinity of the enclosure were also surveyed (TQ 50 SE 11, 13, 129). Roman material found in the upper layers of the causewayed enclosure's ditch and elsewhere in the vicinity was recorded as TQ 50 SE 130.Seton Williams' 1962 excavations (see Source 7) along the eastern side of the enclosure and at various points in the interior were published in 1994 by Drewett (11a). The earthwork profiles were similar to those revealed by Musson, but the finds differed: there was very little 'domestic' material, but a number of whole and broken axes. Some of the finds are now missing. Note that the 'phallic object' described by source 9 was found at the approximate location of one of Seton Williams' trenches. Drewett suggests that it may well have been carved during the excavation.The monument is generally as described by previous sources. The causewayed enclosure consists of a penannular inner causewayed bank and ditch, and apparently discontinuous sections of an outer earthwork. Traces of the third earthwork mentioned by Source 4 were also recorded.The inner earthwork encloses a regular slightly oval area of c.0.5ha measuring 90m W-E by 70m N-S. The inner earthwork's internal bank is 4.0m-7.0m wide and up to 0.6m high, with a ditch (no berm) 3.0m-5.0m wide and up to 0.7m deep. As Curwen recorded (Sources 2, 5, 6) 16 possible causeways across the ditch can be identified, although only 5 appear to be completely undug, the others being slight undulations in the base of the ditch. There are numerous other minor irregularities, some relating to the earlier excavations. All but 3 of the causeways across the ditch coincide with complete or partial interruptions in the bank, mostly ranging from 2.0m-5.0m wide. There are larger breaks on the east (an apparent complete break in both bank and ditch 10m wide) on the south (11m wide, but with possible indications of the levelling of the earthwork), and on the west (4m wide, possibly resulting partly from erosion by the track. On the north there is no trace of any earthwork for 45m, but the natural steep scarp completes the enclosure. There are intermittent traces, notably on the eastern and south-western sides, of a counterscarp bank no more than 0.1m high.The outer earthwork consists of a length of causewayed bank and ditch 65m long on the west and an isolated segment 12m long on the east, linked on the south by a very degraded scarp (contrary to previous sources). The outer enclosure is not perfectly concentric with the inner, ranging from 12m distance on the south to 24m on the west. The two well-preserved sections have similar dimensions to the inner earthwork. The western section of ditch is interrupted by three causeways, two of which correspond to partial breaks and the other to a complete break in the bank, the last possibly contributed to by erosion along the track. Curwen's percussion technique detected an isolated ditch segment due south of the enclosure which could not be confirmed by RCHME.There are two minor earthworks which lie between the inner and outer enclosures which may be of Neolithic date.The broad low bank 30m west of the enclosure noted by Source 4 is 10.0m wide and up to 0.2m high; its alignment is fairly straight and coincides with a strip of gorse scrub, suggesting that may result from later agriculture. At its northern end the bank is overlain by a low mound; however the relationship with the bowl barrow (TQ 50 SE 11) is unclear. Some 30m east of the enclosure, RCHME identified vestigial traces of a comparable earthwork; the most appreciable element is a bank up to 7.5m wide and 0.1m high, which appears to underlie the disc barrow (TQ 50 SE 127) and extend for some 40m north of it to the edge of the natural scarp.Black and white photography of the enclosure was carried out (negative numbers AA96/ 2982 - 2985).For further details, see RCHME Level 3 client report, together with plan at 1:1000 scale and photographs, held in archive. (11)
Resistivity survey carried out in 2003 by Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society. Dry weather conditions caused poor quality results, but did identify the inner enclosure and the western curcuit of the outer enclosure. In the interior two possible posthole clusters where identified, comprising an arc of nine posts in the southern area and an arc of eight posts in the eastern sector; both interpreted as palisades blocking entrances [15]
A survey carried out in 1996 showed that rural sites in East Sussex continued to be damaged or destroyed at the same rate as 1976. The most vulnerable individual sites and site groups were identified and remedial action was suggested. [18]

Sources

Associated Events

• Field observation on TQ 50 SE 12
• COMBE HILL CAMP (Ref: EI 524)
• COMBE HILL CAMP (Ref: EI 533)
• Combe Hill, Willingdon : Earthwork Survey
• Mulitple Causewayed enclosure sites: Desk Based Assessment
• The East Sussex Plough Damage Survey 1995-1996 : Survey

Associated Monuments - none recorded

Associated Finds

• ANIMAL REMAINS (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• LEAF ARROWHEAD (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• POLISHED AXEHEAD (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• QUERN (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• SCRAPER (TOOL) (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• VESSEL (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• VESSEL (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• VESSEL (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• VESSEL (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• PHALLIC OBJECT (Modern - 1901 AD to 2050 AD)

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