A University of Kent research excavation - one of the largest Late Anglo-Saxon rural settlement excavations to have taken place in southern England – undertaken within the core of the village of Bishopstone, East Sussex.  Now in its post-excavation phase (publication expected 2008), the project is providing detailed and varied insights into the physical character, economy and community of pre-Conquest Bishopstone.  Results are also establishing a localised archaeological context for the well-known and much-debated Anglo-Saxon church of St Andrews, and the ‘afterlife’ of the Middle Saxon settlement shift first revealed by Martin Bell’s landmark 1970s excavations on Rookery Hill.

As part of the first detailed archaeological investigation into the origins of a living Sussex village, the University of Kent (Classical & Archaeological Studies) joined forces with the Sussex Archaeological Society in Summer 2004 to excavate the remains of a Late Anglo-Saxon settlement and associated cemetery within the heart of Bishopstone and within the shadow of a nationally renowned Anglo-Saxon church. Another season of excavations took place in the summer of 2005.

The Bishopstone field school, tailored towards beginners and those with limited experience, provided an intensive 5-day training course covering the following: geophysics, archaeological survey, excavation techniques, site planning and context recording, the sampling and analysis of artefacts and environmental remains, and historic landscape interpretation.

Please click HERE to visit the Sussex Archaeological Society website for further details

Bishopstone Website

Email:
g.thomas@kent.ac.uk

Telephone:
+44 (0) 1227 764000
Direct line:
+44 (0) 1227 827528