The excavations carried out over the past two weeks (19 April - 4 May 2008) have uncovered tools dating back to the Mesolithic period when the area may have been wooded and people were hunting animals, foraging for nuts and berries and making their camps in the area.
A flint arrowhead was found from the late Neolithic period when the earliest farmers settled on the land, along with numerous pieces of pottery dating from the Bronze Age when the burial mound was built some 2000-3000 years ago - the same period as that when the famous stones were erected at Stonehenge.
The burial mound is perilously close to the edge of the cliff at Peacehaven Heights and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The pace of coastal erosion means it is likely that the barrow will be unsafe to access within the next few years and will probably disappear altogether within the next 25 years.
English Heritage and the landowner agreed to its excavation by Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society and the Mid Sussex Field Archaeological Team to record as much information as possible about it before it falls into the sea.
More than 30 volunteer diggers from the local area and around Sussex have helped to discover and record finds such as the pottery and flint tools, which will be used to date the mound.
Many such mounds were built in the Bronze Age, often in high places, to mark the burial of a local chief. Only one quarter of the mound has been excavated so far and no such burial has yet been found. However, the presence of a small pits and possible post holes in the ground suggest there may have secondary cremations placed in the mound during the Bronze Age - a practice that may have been copied centuries later by the Romans.
The mound also produced pottery and clay pipe dating from the 1700-1800s, which could point to earlier antiquarian robbing of the mound. Sadly there are no written records of their finds. The mound was later visited again this time for defence purposes when soldiers dug their slit trenches through it during World War II as part of their defence of the coastline and a nearby radar station (now demolished). These trenches, along with any other WW2 finds, were recorded by archaeologists during preliminary excavations last September.
Project leader Susan Birks said:
"This mound has a complicated history spanning several thousand years BC right up to World War II. It's a complex story that will need careful unravelling, but we have gathered enough information to tell us its age and something about the people who built it."
Paul Roberts, Inspector of Ancient Monuments for English Heritage in the South East said:
"Round barrows are very important burial monuments which give us tangible evidence of the beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities and remain an evocative and characteristic feature of the modern South Downs landscape. The slit trenches that were dug into the barrow during the Second World War to provide cover for men protecting the nearby radar station are a reminder of the extensive anti-invasion defences that were rapidly erected on the south coast and throughout the country in 1940 and 1941."
Paul Roberts continued:
"The barrow on Peacehaven Heights was destined to collapse into the sea as a result of cliff erosion, and so the project by the Mid-Sussex Field Archaeology Team and the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society to excavate and understand this important scheduled monument before it is lost is invaluable and has our full support."
Once the excavations have been completed, the barrow will be reinstated as it was, and the results will be collated into a report for dissemination to archaeological and local societies, as well as East Sussex County Council and English Heritage. Any finds will be donated to the Brighton & Hove Museum.
