The Iron Age

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)