page_title: Religion in Sussex
section_title: Prehistoric religions
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Sussex / Historic faiths / Prehistoric religions
caption_attribution_description: English: Bevis's Thumb. Neolithic barrow associated in folklore with the giant Bevis of Hampton. Bevis was associated with Southampton and Arundel which in myth was named after his horse Hirondelle. According to legend he was said to have thrown his sword from the battlements of Arundel Castle to mark his burial spot. This is one of three sites that claim its landing place, the others being near Havant and in the grounds of Arundel Park. The sword itself which is nearly 6 foot long is kept at Arundel Castle. The barrow is next to the bridleway leading up Telegraph Hill.
context_page_description: Religion in Sussex has been dominated over the last 1,400 years by Christianity. Like the rest of England, the established church in Sussex is the Church of England, although other Christian traditions exist. After Christianity, the religion with the most adherents is Islam, followed by Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Sikhism.
  Sussex is sometimes referred to as 'Silly Sussex', for silly is a corruption of Old Saxon saelig meaning 'holy'.
  The historic county has been a single diocese after St Wilfrid converted the kingdom of Sussex in the seventh century. Historically, the west of the county has had a tendency towards Catholicism while the east of the county has had a tendency towards non-conformism. The county has been home to several pilgrimage sites, including the shrine to St Richard of Chichester which was destroyed during the Reformation, and the more recent Catholic shrine at West Grinstead. During the Marian persecutions, several Sussex men were martyred for their Protestant faith, including 17 men at Lewes. The Society of Dependants were a non-conformist sect formed in Loxwood.
context_section_description: The tendency of humans to dispose of their dead ceremonially is considered to distinguish them from other species of animals. This started to happen in Europe about 80,000 years ago.  The human record in Sussex goes back  to the Palaeolithic age. No human bones have been found in Sussex from that period, although the discovery of large flint implements indicate that there was human occupation .
  There have been finds across Europe that suggest that people believed in some sort of afterlife, but whether this represented a religion is not certain.  The number of Palaeolithic graves found across Europe has been small and all those in the British region show signs of having been buried in a ritual way.
  The Neolithic people of Sussex built causewayed enclosures, including those at Whitehawk Camp, Combe Hill and The Trundle. There is an hypothesis that there was a ritual element in the construction of these sites, possibly to consecrate the enclosure. Important burials were in long mounds, known as barrows and several have been found in Sussex, they contained cremated remains in pottery vessels. One of the better known long barrows in Sussex is that of  Solomon's or Baverse's (Bevis's) Thumb near Compton, it measures 150 feet (46 m) in length by 20 feet (6.1 m) wide.
  The general way of life in the Bronze Age in Sussex was not too different from that of the Neolithic and this way of life continued for about one thousand years, until the arrival of the Celts from the south east.
  Formal cemeteries and ritual centres have been found at Westhampnett and Lancing Down dating from the late Iron Age.
caption: A long barrow known as Bevis's Thumb near Compton, West Sussex.
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