Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/363

 EARLY MAN The Neolithic Age is well represented in Sussex by a large number of antiquities, such as stone implements and earthworks. Sussex, like Kent, has had the advantage of much research and observation at the hands of competent archsologists, and discoveries have been recorded from practically every part of the county. The distribution of the neolithic remains, however, is so instructive that it seems desirable to devote a few words to that subject before proceeding to deal with the more important antiquities discovered. The chalk hills extending from Beachy Head westward across the southern part of Sussex at a distance of from 3 to 8 miles from the sea- shore, and generally known as the South Downs, form what is unquestion- ably the most prominent of the physical features of the county. On the surface of these Downs, particularly on the southern slopes, numerous flint implements, mostly scrapers, simple flakes and cores, have been discovered, pointing perhaps to the temporary rather than the settled presence of neolithic man. It is abundantly proved that the chief population of Sussex in neolithic times was in the more immediate neighbourhood of the sea-coast or rivers. Indeed, the preference for waterside situations usually shown by early man is well illustrated in the case of Sussex, where a long sea-coast and numerous and circuitous rivers offered suit- able conditions for residence. The simple fact is that until the art of well-boring was introduced or the alternative of dew-ponds discovered, it was practically impossible for any considerable number of people to live far away from the banks of the rivers or the sea-coast. Fish in the rivers and in the sea would furnish a reliable form of food which could hardly fail to attract the greater part of the inhabitants of the district. One has only to note the traces of the various neolithic settlements round the coast of Sussex in order to realize the truth of this. Earthworks in the form of hill-top camps, enclosing the highest points of the South Downs, are comparatively abundant in Sussex, and many are probably as old as the neolithic period, although some at any rate show traces of having been occupied by later races. In the absence of any sufficiently definite and precise evidence as to the period to which these remains belong, however, it has been considered best to describe all the Sussex earthworks together in a separate section, dealing with them with reference to their forms and plans rather than on theoretical grounds as to their chronological sequence. Barrows or sepulchral mounds are well represented among the pre- historic earthworks of Sussex, but they belong for the most part to the Bronze Age. At Seaford, however, and possibly elsewhere, there has been found evidence of neolithic interments.^ The traces of a neolithic population on the Sussex sea-coast are abundant and important. Commencing at the eastern end of the county the Hastings kitchen middens call for special notice. The rocks on the cliff between the castle and the sea are very familiar » A list of barrows and tumuli in Sussex will be found in the article on Ancient Earthworks.