- Whitehawk Camp is a Scheduled Monument which holds the remains of a Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure.
- It is located on Whitehawk Hill next to Brighton Racecourse in Brighton, West Sussex in southern England.
Description
- The Camp is dated to between 3,700-2,700 BCE.
- It consisted of four circular ditches with earthen ramparts.
- The site has been partly built over by the Racecourse and a housing estate.
- Although very little of the circular ditches can be seen today, a map showing their outline is positioned nearby.
Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures
- They consist of a discontinous circuit of Embankments and Ditches built in concentric circles, with Causeways crossing the ditches.
- The earliest building of these Neolithic structures occurred in France in 4,000 BCE and generally ends in 3200 BCE. They are often accompanied by Neolithic Long or Round Barrows.
- The majority are in located England and France, with 70 examples in western and southern England mostly on the chalk uplands, 100 in France, and others scattered around Ireland, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
- After 3000 BCE, they were replaced by Henge Monuments.
- Their purpose remains a mystery, but archaeologists consider they may have been built to celebrate rituals or funerals, rather than for defense, since human remains, animal remains, pottery and food were regularly deposited in the ditches.
- Many Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures had been lost through millenia of ploughing, and were found through aerial photography.
Other Examples
- Maiden Castle (c. 4,000-450 BCE)
- Maiden Castle is considered to be the largest Hill Fort in Europe and is located 1.5 miles (2.6km) southwest of Dorchester in Dorset.
- A Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure was the first structure on the site, dating from c. 4,000 BCE.
- Around c. 3,350 BCE, a long 1,790 feet (500m) Bank Barrow with parallel ditches was built inside the Enclosure.
- The Hill Fort was built in c.600 BCE, and by 450 BCE it had been expanded to become the largest Hill Fort in Europe, surrounded by a triple Ditch defensive system.
- Robin Hood’s Ball
- A Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure located 2.5 miles (4km) northwest of Stonehenge in Wiltshire.
- The Trundle
- An Iron Age Hill fort built on the site of a Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure on Si. Roche’s Hill, 4 miles (6km) north of Chichester in West Sussex.
- Barkhale Camp
- A Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure located on Bignor Hill on the South Downs in West Sussex. It is part of the Slindon Estate managed by the National Trust. It lies approximately 1.5 miles (2km) southwest of Bignor Roman Villa.
- Windmill Hill
- A Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure located 1 mile northwest from Avebury in Wiltshire.
Photo and map: Whitehawk Camp