Offham Hill Causewayed Enclosure

Causewayed enclosures are one of the earliest known types of field monument and earthwork in Britain, dating from the Early Neolithic period (around 3700-2500 BC) Their purpose is not clear: were they a ritual space, cattle pen, meeting point, burial ground, trading post or settlement? Due to their age, rarity, and diversity of plan, all causewayed enclosures are now considered nationally important, but that was not always the case: the enclosure located at the summit of Offham Hill, East Sussex, is all but eradicated by the hand of man. What centuries of ploughing did not erase was lost to 19th century chalk quarrying, which removed the entire eastern side of the site. Driven to desperate measures by the prospect of further damage by agriculture, archeologists in the 1970s scraped most of the remaining site down to the chalk bedrock to recover whatever artefacts and remains might be hidden in the soil. To preserve, they destroyed; any surviving structures are no longer visible to the untrained eye. .

This diptych celebrates the timeless mystery of Offham Hill, and mourns the enclosure's loss to our shared landscape and cultural heritage by showing the scars of its destruction, starkly lit by late winter moonlight and by daylight on the following day.