A HISTORY OF SUSSEX gether brought round and hooked over the open loop in a manner which will be easily seen from the accompanying engraving, but is difficult to describe. A hoard of bronze implements, deposited in a coarse earthen pot, was found near Worthing in 1877. The hoard, which comprised nearly thirty examples of looped palstaves, some socketed celts, and some lumps of metal, is now in the collection of Sir John Evans, K.C.B. Other minor articles of bronze found in what may be called the Brighton district are a palstave and disc found at Wolstanbury Hill, a prominent point on the South Downs 7 or 8 miles nearly north of Brighton ; a winged celt found at Clayton Hill ; and looped palstaves and spear-heads discovered at Hangleton Downs. The Bronze Age antiquities in the Lewes district, apart from earthworks such as tumuli and camps, comprise a very charming example of a decorated flanged celt ; a spear-head now in the British Museum said to have been found in a tumulus ; ' a long pin of bronze found in a barrow near Lewes ;^ and a pin with a long oval ring-like head found between Lewes and Brighton.^ About midway between Lewes and Eastbourne, where the present village of Wilmington lies under the shoulder of the South Downs, an interesting hoard of Bronze Age antiquities was found in 1861. The objects, which, as in the case of the Worthing hoard, were deposited in a pot of coarse earthenware, comprised thirty-three bronze articles, mainly socketed and looped celts and looped palstaves. The implements were mostly worn or broken when buried, but when found they had not suffered from oxidation in any material degree, and they are now preserved in the Lewes Museum. Unfortunately the earthen pot was destroyed by the workmen. In the year 1807 a collection of extremely important antiquities obtained from the sea-shore at Beachy Head, Eastbourne,' was exhibited by Mr. Holt at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London. They comprised (i) four bracelets of pure gold ranging in weight from 3 oz. I dwt. to 16 dwt. 4 gr., and of elegant form without ornamenta- tion ; (2) the base of a bronze sword blade pierced with seven holes for fastening to the handle ; (3) three palstaves ; (4) two socketed celts ; and (5) three lumps of pure copper. All these are now in the British Museum. Perhaps one of the most significant things about this dis- covery is the occurrence of gold ornaments for personal wear in associ- ation with implements of baser metal but of characteristic Bronze Age forms, an association which forms another proof of the knowledge of gold in the Bronze Age. The celebrated hoard of gold ornaments found at Mountfield was probably of the Prehistoric Iron Age, and will therefore be mentioned under that section of this article. Sussex possesses many barrows or sepulchral mounds of the Bronze ' Hora^ Ferales, pi. vi. fig. 28. - Sussex Arch. Coll. ii. 260. 3 Ibid. ii. 265. " .//■,:/;. xvi. 363, pi. 68. 320
