Seaside Recreation Ground: A Multi-Proxy Palaeoenvironmental Investigation on the Coastal Edge of the Willingdon Levels, Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK

ABSTRACT The Willingdon Levels hold some of the best-preserved prehistoric archaeological and palaeoenvironmental remains in south-east England. This study aims to characterise the previously unexplored coastal limits of the Willingdon Peat and compare the chronology with known sites. The degree of anthropogenic influence on vegetation cover in prehistory is of significant interest to archaeologists, and this paper aims to strengthen the case for human-induced landscape alteration surrounding the Willingdon Levels in the Bronze Age. Lithological, palynological, entomological, ostracod, foraminifera, diatom and radiocarbon analyses were applied to a sequence of deposits at Seaside Recreation Ground. This paper palaeoenvironmentally reconstructs the coastal edge of the Willingdon wetland and proposes a timing for the main period of peat initiation that occurred across the Levels. A decline in woodland taxa and the presence of cereal pollen allude to human presence in the landscape. The results have contributed to the Willingdon Levels modelling project.