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A Mesolithic Site on Iping Common, Sussex, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

P. A. M. Keef
Affiliation:
Museum and Art Gallery, Reading
J. J. Wymer
Affiliation:
Museum and Art Gallery, Reading
G. W. Dimbleby
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, London

Extract

The Iping Mesolithic site, found by Mr O. Knowles of Iping, lies on undulating Lower Greensand near the edge of a marsh which extends down to a pond and permanent spring (Sheet 181 O.S. 1″. 8485–2221). The site was totally excavated in 1960–61, by the West Sussex Excavation Group, following its accidental discovery. It consisted of a roughly circular area, about 25 feet across, of stained sand (Layer C) stratified between white sands (Layers B and D), all underlying the topmost deposit of heather on peat (Layer A). The white sand occurs as wind-blown material intermittently over the Lower Greensand of west Sussex, south Surrey and Hampshire. The darker stained layer was less than 6 inches thick and contained an abundant flint industry of cores, waste flakes and finished tools. The industry is of Maglemosian aspect and is important for its association with a well-preserved pollen which has yielded information about the contemporary environment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1965

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References

1 PPS, XXVI (1960), pp. 246–62Google Scholar.