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Knowledge of the bronze period is
derived form the graves contents and bronze implements that are
discovered, and the lack of flint implements found. During the Bronze
Age the custom was to burry the dead in circular grave moulds, shaped
like inverted bowls or saucers, surrounded by a ditch at the foot
of the mould, which was of various sizes and types, from between
2 – 3 feet up to 12 feet in height.
The arrival of the Bronze Age, brought
with it a new race of people, of different physical features from
those of the darker skin smaller Neolithic native, with different
possessions, there structure was larger several inches taller than
the native Neolithic inhabitants.
The new settlers who came to Sussex
were known as the ‘Celts’, were from parts of Normandy,
Switzerland, and South Germany, they brought with them new pottery
and new bronze implements and weapons, socket handle axes, bronzed
winged axes, bronze blades, and slashing swords.
The remains of Bronze Age graves
(moulds) found in Brighton, one from Beggar’s Haven, near
the site of the old Dyke railway station, a skeleton of a woman
found along with a tubular bead of bronze around her neck, another
skeleton found in Ditchling Road Brighton, and two from Church Hill,
near St. Nicholas’s Church.
The largest Bronze Age grave (mould)
to be found in Sussex was in Palmeria Avenue Hove. Among the finds
was a oak coffin of about 7 feet long, besides the fragments of
decayed bones, was a Red Amber Cup made from a single piece of red
amber about 5 inches in height, it has a rounded flat base with
a handle, finely decorated on the body of the cup with raised lines,
also found a stone axe hammer that was made of volcanic stone, and
a bronze dagger.
West Blatchington Hove. Excavation
carried out in 1947 – 1949, disclose evidence of the Bronze
Age settlements, a few store jars, broken pottery, and a cooking
place containing over a ton of burnt flint, plus two bronze broken
axes were found.
The ‘Brighton Loop’.
Found in a merchant's hoard at Black Rock Brighton. together with
a blade, and a finger ring, and two oval bronze bracelets.
Two more pairs of loops were found
in Hollingdean Brighton in 1825, another four pair of loops with
a skeleton and pottery in a grave were found in a site at Falmer
Brighton, with two ring headed pin, one about nineteen inches in
length.
At the remains of a settlement at
Patcham, was found three bracelets , two of solid gold and one of
brass covered with gold, all of smooth and elegant finish , a brooch
was also found in Ladies Mile Road, Patcham, Brighton.
Known as "The Brighton Loop”
from the fact that seventeen of the twenty four recorded bronze
objects were found to have come from the Brighton and Hove area.
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