Thundersbarrow Hill is an archaeological site in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
, England. It is on a chalk ridge, aligned north-west to south-east, on the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...
north of
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England.
The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the ...
.
There is an
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
hillfort; also a
bowl barrow and a Martin Down style enclosure of the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
; and traces of a
Romano-British farming village. The site is a
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
Description
There was some excavation in 1932 by E. C. Curwen, and in 1985 by D. Rudling.
[
]
Hillfort
The univallate fort, area about , is roughly circular; the east side has been much affected by ploughing, but the western side has a bank up to high. There was originally an outer ditch of width about , now filled in. There are entrances at the north and south-east. Analysis of pottery sherd
In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well.
Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...
s have shown that the fort was constructed in the 6th century BC and in use until the mid 3rd century BC.[
]
Martin Down style enclosure
Inside the fort is a Martin Down style enclosure, so named after the Bronze Age enclosure on Martin Down in Hampshire, interpreted as a domestic settlement. It is roughly square, with sides of about and area about , almost levelled by ploughing. There are two original entrances on the west and east sides, about wide. From analysis of pottery sherds from the (now infilled) ditch, it is thought that the enclosure was in use in the 10th and 9h centuries BC.[
]
Barrow
About south-east of the fort is the Bronze Age bowl barrow, known as Thunders Barrow. It was disturbed by the creation of a dew pond in 1873 and by earth-moving in 1964; a semi-circular mound remains, about in diameter and height up to .[
]
Romano-British village
To the east and north of the fort are the buried remains of a Romano-British village. Excavation in 1932 found rectangular houses, dimensions about by ; coins and sherds of pottery were found, of date AD 50 to 400. On the southern, western and eastern sides of the ridge, over an area of about , a field system contemporary with the Romano-British village can be discerned from earthworks up to high and by crop marks visible from the air. The mainly rectangular fields have an average area of about .[
]
References
{{Iron Age hillforts in England
Hill forts in West Sussex
Scheduled monuments in West Sussex
Hills of West Sussex