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During the course of the Project over 40 field investigations have

been undertaken.These have included geophysical surveys, test

pitting, boreholing and the cleaning of sections in old quarry

workings. This fieldwork sought to identify the following:

i) The position of the fossil cliff line, this delimits the northern edge of the Upper Coastal Plain.

ii) The southerly limits of the Slindon Formation, where archaeological deposits are truncated by overlying periglacial gravels flows. In addition, the relationship between dry valley deposits and the Slindon Formation had to be assessed. It was not known whether any archaeological sensitive horizons would have survived the cutting of these valleys..

iii) The surviving extent of the Slindon Silts, the palaeosol and the organic bed (Fe/Mn horizon). These are the contexts which preserved most of the in situ artifact scatters at Boxgrove.

iv) Areas of atypical sedimentation and lateral variation in known geological units.

The fieldwork has shown that deposits of the Slindon Formation

can be traced for 24km between Tortington, near Arundel in the

east across to Westbourne Common, near Havant in the west.

At either end of their distribution these deposits outcrop within

relatively low lying areas. Here, beach pebbles can be found lying

exposed on hillcrests or shallowly buried, lying on platforms of

Palaeogene bedrock. Sands associated with deposits in these

terminal areas are heavily decalcified and the palaeosol is not

preserved.

However, within a core area between Slindon and Racton Park

Farm, the deposits of the Slindon and Eartham Formations are

remarkably well preserved. Conformable sequences containing

elements of the Slindon Silts, the palaeosol, the organic bed

(Fe/Mn horizon) and overlying brickearths can be traced across

13 kilometres. In this area the deposits are generally deeply

buried and calcareous preserved. They reflect original

environments and preservational conditions very similar to those

at Boxgrove. There is, therefore, no reason why these deposits

should not contain equally important archaeological and faunal

remains.

In some locations dry valley formation has occurred without

disturbing the underlying Slindon Formation. This means that we

are now able to identify locations where excavations can directly

sample new parts of the palaeolandscape. One of these areas is

at Slindon Bottom, which also showed an exciting new suite of

atypical deposits preserving organic remains as part of the Slindon

Formation. These sediments will provide detailed evidence for the

nature of late interglacial environments in northern Europe half a

million years ago.