21/07/2019
There are more legends of seven sisters...
This panorama by D. Illiff provides an unaccustomed view of the Seven Sisters, located between Seaford and Beachy Head, Sussex. The Sisters are characterized by alternating hills and points, called brows and bottoms, of eroded white chalk.
Legend tells us that that seven nuns (or sisters) represent the points in the chalk cliffs, but their names may simply refer to the valleys where seven sisters had cottages. Others attribute the name to the star clusters of the Pleiades used by ancient Greeks to navigate the Mediterranean.
The names of the sisters and the points are, from the west (and the background) to the east (foreground), Haven Brow, Short Brow, Rough Brow, Brass Point, Flat Hill, Bailey's Hill, and Went Hill.
The headlands, which reach close to 240 feet in height, are crossed by the South Downs Way, inland from the coast. It passes through and encircles on three sides, iron age field systems, tumuli (burial mounds) and settlements, including Belle Tout, thought to be "the largest prehistoric enclosure" in England (Tom Dommett, Seven Sisters Archaeology Project).
A track, known as the Seven Sisters' Hike, follows the coast between Seaford and Eastbourne over 22 km of difficult terrain, on the fourth side. The fact that both long-distance routes--South Downs Way and the Seven Sisters' Hike--enclose Bronze and Iron Age megaliths indicates their great age as well as the importance of Belle Tout. (An interactive map of the area revealing the rich prehistoric landscape is contained in https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=566).
Belle Tout, a Neolithic and early Bronze Age settlement, flourished as long ago as 5,000 years. Its remains are located at the far eastern dip in the Seven Sisters, at Birling Gap, faintly visible as a portion of a stone circle in the upper right of the photo. Situated today in a starkly empty landscape, Belle Tout consists of two (of an original three) rings of banks and ditches, with the largest enclosure once encompassing 50 acres, possibly including the area west of Beachy Head.
At its heyday, the erosion of Belle Tout was minimal, and the settlement was intact. Access to the beach below seems to have taken a round about route on the coastal track. Excavations on the chalk shore, however, disclose a more efficient and inventive solution to traversing the distance.
Periodic excavations as early as 1806 of cliff fall below Belle Tout uncovered Bronze Age artifacts and chalk from the enclosure banks themselves, much of which have fallen into the sea. The most recent excavations focus on a 120-foot shaft once located in the center of the inner enclosure and opening to a pit on the beach. Exposed through storm erosion, the shaft is seen to be circular with hand and foot holds.
Prehistoric people not only adapted to their environment, they shaped it, solving problems of transportation and communication in creative ways. Along the coasts of the British and Irish Isles are many segments of eroded walled enclosures perched on the edges of headlands hundreds of feet above sea level. It is interesting to speculate on the existence of shafts enabling passage to the sea in these places as well.
For images of the coast and the shaft with discussions of the archaeology, see the 4/19/2016 account following Storm Imogen by CITiZan: https://www.citizan.org.uk/blog/2016/Apr/19/lost-and-found-rediscovering-bronze-age-shaft-belle-tout/.
Enjoy the post, and thank you all for your support!
Stephanie
