Excavations at Rock Common (Sussex) with Wessex Archaeology August-September 1997, one of the best digs I was involved with – the one where we took a hill and put it through a sieve. Initial evaluations had revealed scatters of Microliths so the plan was to grid the hill and take the strata down in “spits” sieving the spoil for any flint artefacts (microliths), the work was initially back breaking but you got used to it after a few days although we did return after the excavation with a few less sieves than we had started out with. The landscape of Rock Common was covered in pine trees stumps, these had been truncated prior to the area being quarried, after our excavation and sieving the landscape looked like an invasion of Alien Spiders. One of the best things about the dig was the accomodation in some of Brighton University’s Hall’s of residence (outside of term time) giving us kitchens and common rooms etc a vast improvment on the usual B&B and also the morning cup of teas catered for by Nessie.
A Mesolithic site at Rock Common, Washington, West Sussex
Sussex Archaeological Collections 138
Harding, P. (2000). A Mesolithic site at Rock Common, Washington, West Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections 138. Vol 138, pp. 29-48.
https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3180143
“Reports that a concentration of Middle–Late Mesolithic flintwork was recorded by excavation. Over 50,000 pieces of worked flint were discovered, including Horsham microliths and microburins. There were some residual finds of Late Glacial artefacts. The artefact distribution is interpreted as suggesting that re-tooling and repairing of hunting equipment was undertaken around a series of hearths, represented by burnt flint. Some Neolithic flintwork was also recovered.“
Team
John Lewis Project Manager
Phil Harding Project Officer
Steve Tattler
Nessie (Barry Hennessy)
Gemma Smith (Whelan)
Angela Batt
Steve Legg
Hayley Clarke
Marie Claire Ferguson
Nick Plunkett
Astrid Hanson
Dave Webb