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The Iron Age begins with the popularisation
of the use of iron from the Middle East, about 500 B.C. by another
wave of immigrants form the Continent, bringing with them pottery
and other goods, characteristic of the culture from which they came.
These immigrants belong to a culture
known as Hallstatt after a place in Austria, they were refugees,
displaced by war. They settled in Sussex.
One Bronze hoard from Whitelot Bottom
Portslade, contains some broken bronze as well as a ‘swan
neck’ pin, a ring headed pin, and part of a safety pin.
A camp excavated at Hollingbury near
the Hollingbury Golf Course on Ditchling Road.
This site is considered one of the
great Iron Age Hill Forts in Sussex, built about 250 B.C., at one
time a defence wall, made of timber with a deep ditch in front of
it , unassailable without a ladders.
A bronze brooch of the 3rd century
B.C., was found on an early settlement site at Kemptown Brighton.
Devil’s Dyke, in the late Iron
Age, a Hill-Fort was built there, to provide security for the local
people.
Among the other discoveries, is a
bent silver ring, which came from Switzerland, where it can be dated
to the period 325 – 250 A.D.
On Castle Hill Newhaven, judging
from the vast quantity of pottery that was found there must have
being a considerate population living there.
A settlement found North of Coldean
in Brighton.
The Iron Age lasted until the Roman
conquest in A.D. 43.
The museum publishes a book Hollingbury
Camp - (1983)
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