Two farmsteads, one of late Iron Age (second-first centuries BC) date and
the other dating to the early Romano-British period (first-second centuries
AD), were excavated at Copse Farm, Oving. The site is situated within the
Chichester dykes on the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Plain. The Iron Age
farmstead produced pottery spanning ‘saucepan’ and ‘Aylesford-Swarling’
traditions, a transition in ceramic production which is poorly understood in
Sussex. Information on the agricultural economy and small-scale industries
(principally metalworking) practised at this site give an insight into the
way the Coastal Plain was settled and exploited at the end of the first
millennium BC.