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.