Cross dyke on Sullington Hill, 500m south east of The Chantry

Reasons for Designation

Cross dykes are substantial linear earthworks typically between 0.2km and 1km long and comprising one or more ditches arranged beside and parallel to one or more banks. They generally occur in upland situations, running across ridges and spurs. They are recognised as earthworks or as cropmarks on aerial photographs, or as combinations of both. The evidence of excavation and analogy with associated monuments demonstrates that their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used later. Current information favours the view that they were used as territorial boundary markers, probably demarcating land allotment within communities, although they may also have been used as trackways, cattle droveways or defensive earthworks. Cross dykes are one of the few monument types which illustrate how land was divided up in the prehistoric period. They are of considerable importance for any analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age. Very few have survived to the present day and hence all well- preserved examples are considered to be of national importance.

The cross dyke on Sullington Hill survives well, despite some subsequent disturbance, and will retain important archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the construction and use of the monument. The cross dyke is one of a group of broadly contemporary monuments situated along the ridge, providing important evidence for the relationship between burial practices, settlement and land division in this area of downland during the later prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes a cross dyke constructed across a chalk spur which projects to the north east from a ridge of the Sussex Downs. The north west-south east aligned cross dyke survives as a c.224m long ditch measuring c.8m wide and up to 1m deep, flanked to the north east by a bank c.9m wide and up to c.1.3m high. A short section of the dyke near its north western end has been levelled by long term use of a downland track, and the earthworks have also been partly disturbed by past modern ploughing and the siting of a stock-watering tank. To the north west, the earthworks gradually fade out as the ground falls away. The south eastern end had been destoyed by later, post-medieval chalk quarrying, and this area is therefore not included in the scheduling. The modern fence and gateway which cross the monument and the stock-watering tank are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

29267

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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