ANCIENT BRITAIN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 October 1925, Page 9

ANCIENT BRITAIN.

HUMES OF 300 a YEARS AGO. DISCOVERIES ON SUSSEX DOWNS. On a lonely slope of the Sussex Downs, to the north-east of the wellknown prehistoric fort of Oissbury, there has just been discovered the remains of villages of the late Bronze Age period and of the Iron Age, or Keltic period. There is, moreover, evidence of a Keltic tribe which persisted right through the period of the Roman occupation, absorbing Roman culture, final'iy to be destroyed by the Saxon.

These 'important additions to the knowledge of early British history have been made possible by the excavations carried out by Air. Garnet Volseley, a relative of the late Lord IVoiseley, whose operations were super, vised by Air. Reginald A. Smith, of the British Aiu&eum.

Charred renin ants, now uncovered from the kind'ly turf which liid them, show the, site where undoubtedly the Romano-Britisli fought their last fight against the Saxon, and met the fate that the Saxon chronicler so tersely ascribes to Anderida: “Not one Brit was left.” Littered about under the accumulated loose soil and turf are Roman tiles Roman tile nails, fragments of walls with coloured distemper, Roman glass, and a large amount of fragments of pottery. Experts declare that these potsherds reveal a gradual progress from the purely Keltic type to native attempts to imitate Roman ware, and, indeed, to pure, Roman ware. A broken wine cup was found of the finest Samian ware, delicately ornamented. Among the mass of miscellaneous fragments have been identified portions of the classic Roman amphorae, used for importing wine from Italy. Other eVidence yielded by the spade, and interpreted by Air. Reginald Smith and other experts, is considered as establishing conclusively that this particular Keltic tribe invaded England some seven hundred years before the Saxons came, and first brought into England knowledge of iron. Armed with their superior weapons, they exterminated the inhabitants of a Bronze Age village, of which the most definite remains have been found, and established a village of their own a quarter of a mile from the Bronze Ago site at the- top of the hill known as Park Brow. The excavators to-day are digging out the floors of their houses, the deep pits in the chalk used for stores, and the curious little holes that must have been made for cupboards, some still containing the pots they were meant to hold. Abundant evidence has been found of the milling, the weaving, and the feasts of this earliest known of Keltic, tribes in England.

At a. point on Park Brow, intermediate in position, between this earliest Keltic village and. the- Romano. Keltic village, are the beaten floors, tho crumpled wattle and. daub wads, the primitive pottery of the late Bronze Age period. All the indications point to a pastoral, unskilled people-—hunters of the red deer and the wild boar, keepers of goats and sheep—being overwhelmed by invaders, their village burned, and its site ploughed over, by the conquerors. The lelics of the Bronze period are confined to one site. They show no sign of development; they are mixed with nothing else. The Keltic remains show continuous progress from what is recognised as Early Iron Age culture to the RomanoBritish culture. Experts state that this is the first evidence yet discovered in England of this Early Iron Age, and that there is no other site known in England giving a continuous history from the Bronze Age to the Saxon destruction. . The chain can he carried further. Not far from the site of the destroyed Rom a n o-Keltic village is the presentday village of Sompting, which sti'll retains the tower built by the Saxons.