Steyning
nestles in a valley overlooked by the South Downs. This is an ancient
landscape, criss-crossed by tracks first used by Neolithic hunters,
farmers and traders six thousand years ago. The
South Downs Way traces some of these
tracks in a route along the South Downs chalk ridge from Winchester to
Eastbourne. It passes Upper Beeding, Bramber and Steyning, although
archaeology shows that these riverside settlements are recent in
comparison to the cultures which created the chalk downland environment
above.
The
South Downs was once an area of dense forest. It was transformed by a
new way of life which spread from the region of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
Roaming hunter-gatherers began to rear farm animals and then to settle
and cultivate crops. The light soil of the chalk hills was gradually
cleared of trees for grazing and planting. Farmers were better able to
survive seasonal shortage and to provide for growing numbers. They even
produced surplus goods for wide-ranging trade and spared a huge amount
of labour to build communal monuments.
There
is evidence of the earliest local trade on Cissbury Ring. Over 270
flint mine shafts are still visible as shallow depressions.
Archaeologists removed the chalk rubble which fills the shafts and
revealed skeletons, tools, images scratched into chalk and many clues
as to how the mining was done. The Cissbury
flint mines produced one of the most
important raw materials for Neolithic life. Cissbury flint tools have
been found as far away as the Eastern Mediterranean.
Neolothic causewayed
enclosures and long barrows have been found several miles to the east
and west of Cissbury. These are typical Neolithic structures and
evidence of a substantial community. As yet, none have been discovered
in the area surrounding Steyning. There are no traces of Neolithic
housing or settlements either, but these are scarce throughout Sussex.
For the time being, isolated finds of flint tools are the best clues we
have that Neolithic people lived around Steyning.
By
the early Bronze Age, about 2000 BC, many cultural changes had taken
place. Archaeologists find distinctive, decorated pots and describe the
life style as Beaker culture. There is evidence of metal working
including gold, copper and bronze. The Cissbury flint mines were
abandoned. At Steyning Round Hill burial urns and round
barrows have been found. These are another sign of culture change,
although the long barrows of Neolithic times seem to have served a
similar purpose. They were placed at prominent points in the landscape,
usually but not always to cover burials, and would have taken enormous
community effort to construct. In a broad area surrounding Hove, near
Brighton, archaeologists have found particularly valuable burial goods.
This suggests that wealthy or high status individuals dominated local
life, but whether as hereditary chieftains, priests or warlords is
unclear.
Farming
and settlement across the South Downs gradually increased. By the later
Bronze Age, the boundaries of individual or family land ownership were
clearly established. As the number of farmsteads increased, with their
wealth of crafts, produce and trade, fewer communal monuments were
built. At Park Brow traces of eight
circular huts were found in the 1920s. They would have had low wattle
and daub walls and a conical thatched roof suported by a central pole.
Fortunately, evidence about the people of Park Brow was recorded before
deep ploughing by modern farmers stripped the site of its archaeology.
So-called
hill forts at Chanctonbury Ring
and Cissbury Ring have
been interpreted as signs that more dangerous times called for military
defences on a regional scale. The ditches and earth banks surrounding
the hilltop enclosures seem to have
an obvious defensive purpose, but archaeologists have found no evidence
that the people who built them ever lived in these places. Perhaps they
were only intended to provide refuge and defence for the surrounding
community at times of direct attack. To add to the confusion, a Roman
temple has been found at Chanctonbury, in the middle of
the enclosure. Was it originally a religious site? An
excavation during 1988-91 gave the end of the Bronze Age
as the period of the enclosure's construction. At Cissbury Ring the
Iron Age earthworks are enormous, but the earliest sign of military
activity is
an encampment at the end of the Roman occupation.
The introduction of iron by Celtic people from the
Continent certainly marked a period of war and probably conquest for the people
of Park Brow. Their round huts were burned and a new settlement sprang
up nearby.
Julius
Caesar described the people of Britain in his account of the Gallic
Wars. His army made two short expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BC.
His deliberately lurid descriptions of the Druid priesthood, the mass
sacrifices, the blue painted bodies of British warriors and their
fighting chariots have left a lasting impression. Caesar declared
himself victorious but he actually failed to subject Britain, although
this was a significant cultural turning point. The area around Steyning
came within the wider province of the Atrobates tribe. The first coins
minted in Britain show a possible royal lineage for the Atrobates. They
were familiar with Roman culture but still sufficiently independent to
be regarded as "barbarians" when the Emperor Claudius sent his army to
conqueror Britain.
Tribal
warfare was almost continuos in Britain at this time. Verica of the
Atrebates travelled to Rome after the loss of his crown in battle,
seeking help. It is thought he offered the Emperor Claudius an
unopposed entry into Britain via the Sussex coast, in return for the
slaughter of his enemies and reinstated kingship. Claudius took
advantage of the invitation in 43 AD and the rest is, literally,
history . . .
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