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Highdown Hill is an extraordinary place. It stands detached from the great chalk spine of the South Downs, dominating the coastal plain across to the English Channel. The Bronze Age saw the hill crowned with an enclosure, perhaps a redistributive centre, which in the early Iron Age was elaborated into a hillfort. This attracted the bathhouse of a Roman villa, with evidence for an enduring Christian presence, and in the 5th century a major cemetery. This may be a rare example of a place whose significance can be seen persisting in the landscape across deep time. Excavation has been carried out there sporadically since the mid-19th century, most recently with the ongoing Big Dig project. This book has done a magnificent job of assembling a full and superbly illustrated catalogue of all known early medieval material found at this nationally important site up to 1988, admirably completing a task begun by the late Martin Welch.
REVIEW BY MICHAEL SHAPLAND
Excavations at Highdown, West Sussex
Sue Harrington (ed.), with Martin Welch and Mark Gardiner
BAR, £85
ISBN 978-1407363134
