Archaeology and Ancient Monuments
The Estate is archaeologically rich. It has been extensively surveyed by local archaeological groups in the past and is currently being explored in depth by students and staff from University College London Institute of Archaeology as part of their field work experience.
Please note that the Estate does not permit metal detecting.
The archaeology shows that the Estate has been settled for many centuries with findings from the New Stone Age, extensive networks of prehistoric and medieval fields, and sites of several Roman villas, a deserted medieval village and an ancient chapel. Chichester was one of the largest Roman settlements in southern Britain.
There are no less than twelve Scheduled Ancient Monuments on the Estate. The Lavant valley and its tributary at Chilgrove (now a dry valley) were certainly occupied during the Old Stone Age, and evidenced by finds of flint axes.
The West Dean area has a very wide range of archaeological sites including Palaeolithic and Mesolithic knapped flint, and Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age earthworks, such as the Devil’s Humps and the 3,500 years old Bronze Age Devil’s Jumps adjacent to the South Downs Way. A particular strength in the surviving evidence around West Dean is the identification of a fairly large number of Roman sites including the two Chilgrove villas excavated and published by Alec Down (1979). An impressive mosaic from one has been restored and is on display at Fishbourne Roman Palace Museum near Chichester. Cunliffe (1973) suggests that the early date for some of what became the larger villas in the area indicates that the local aristocracy, who allied themselves with the Roman ‘invaders’ maintained their land-holdings as they themselves became a part of the ‘Roman’ economic and administrative system. The early fourth century appears to have seen a second ‘boom time’ for villas in the Sussex countryside, possibly with large extended families living inside them, who built extra rooms, new bath houses and mosaic floors. What remains unclear is what happens when the villas were eventually abandoned.
How people lived and worked in this part of the Sussex countryside in the early Saxon periods of the late 5th and 6th centuries are questions being researched by students and staff from University College London (UCL), Institute of Archaeology. The Estate has been collaborating with UCL over several years and through a detailed comparison of the construction methods, building materials and artefact assemblages from the occupation sites and a survey of the field systems we intend to explore how people selected their material culture from what was locally available and changed their economic activities over time, and the degree to which this reflects the cultural identity of the households.
For details of current West Dean archaeological projects click here for Burnt Mound and click here for Bow Hill Camp.
