In certain areas Cissbury Ring resembles a pock marked landscape, traditionally this kind of ground disturbance inside hillforts is the result of modern quarrying, but not in this case, they were here first, before the ramparts were thrown up around you.
These are the filled in shafts and spoil heaps of an immense prehistoric flint mining complex first dug into the South Downs chalk from around 4000 BC.
Beneath your hill fort the ground is honeycombed with a network of tunnels accessed by some 270 pits of various size and depth. Though these weren’t all open at the same time they show a impressive scale of activity resulting from over 500 years of mining activity.
Neolithic means new stone age. Before the introduction of metal technology, the majority of tools – like knives, saws and arrowheads – were made from flint a stone which in hardness and durability is second only to diamond, but can be chipped into a variety of shapes, sizes and implement types.
Flint mines are some of the oldest earthworks still to be found in the modern landscape and around only 10 are confirmed as Neolithic across the country of which the majority survive in the South Downs in a chain running north west from Cissbury Ring including Church Hill, Blackpatch, and Harrow Hill.
Why not visit the site yourself to scale the ramparts, hunt for long lost clues, embrace the views, leave nothing but footprints and enjoy this very special site.
