Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman Landscapes of the Coastal Plain, and a Late Iron Age Warrior Burial at North Bersted, West Sussex; Excavations 2007-2010 (Paperback)

This volume details the open area excavation that took place across nine separate areas at North Bersted. The fieldwork revealed artefacts and features spanning the Upper Palaeolithic through to the Defence of Britain in the mid-1940s, although the principal periods represented were of later Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman date. A smaller volume of Neolithic and medieval deposits were encountered.

The earlier periods were represented by discrete occupation zones - isolated pits, roundhouses, burnt mounds, isolated burials and some enclosure but with little evidence for the development of an enclosed landscape of field systems. This changed with the onset of the Middle Iron Age and continuing into the Roman period when most of the excavated areas (and beyond) had been enclosed with a complex of field boundaries and enclosures with further development through time.

Study of the settlement of this area was enhanced by a radiocarbon-dated palynological analysis of peat and alluvium deposits that infilled the valley of a small stream. Perhaps the most notable finding of the excavation was the grave of a late Iron Age warrior prince or priest who may have been raised in southern Europe, may have fought with the Roman army, and was buried with sword, scabbard, spear, shield, other grave goods including most remarkably, elaborate ceremonial headwear.