‘Indirect’ evidence in assessing the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic: two case studies from the West Sussex coastal plain

West Sussex Coastal Plain: Quarry expansion in raised beach deposits

Indirect means of assessing archaeological significance are commonly used in Pleistocene contexts given the properties of Palaeolithic sites and the thickness of associated stratigraphic sequences.

Approaches comprise the excavation of test pits and drilling of boreholes, and less commonly, use of electrical conductivity tomography and other geophysical techniques. All have been employed on the West Sussex coastal plain, where fine-grained strata associated with Pleistocene raised beaches have been shown to be of considerable archaeological significance (most famously at Amey’s Eartham Pit, Boxgrove).

Two such test pit/borehole studies carried out prior to quarry expansions are discussed here: Lavant Quarry, which lies about 280m north of the supposed Aldingbourne raised beach, and Drayton Lane Oving, 1.2km south of the Brighton–Norton cliff line. The results from both investigations demonstrate the value of indirect evidence in improving stratigraphic/geomorphological models and hence future archaeological mitigation.

Despite field observations to the contrary, subsequent laboratory sedimentological analysis demonstrated that deposits of the Aldingbourne raised beach were not present in the proposed Lavant Quarry extension. On the other hand, raised beach deposits do outcrop on the Drayton Lane site, albeit that the sequence is entirely of sands, suggesting that archaeologically significant Norton Silts outcrop north of the location.