Editing Kingdom of Sussex (section)

===Early period ({{Circa|450}}&nbsp;– 600)===
[[File:Libiusseverus01854.jpg|thumb|right|A coin from the Patching Hoard was a gold ''solidus'' struck in the name of [[Libius Severus|Severus III]]]]
Archaeology gives a different settlement picture to that indicated by the South Saxon foundation story. Germanic tribes probably first arrived in Sussex earlier in the 5th century than 477.{{sfn|Welch|1992|p=9}}{{sfn|Morris|1965|pp=145-185}} The archaeological evidence that we do have indicates the area of settlement by the location of cemeteries of the period.{{sfn|Welch|1992|loc=Chapter 5. "Burial practices and Structures"}} The origins of the settlers can be derived by comparing the design of grave goods and pottery with the designs of similar items in the German homelands.{{sfn|Welch|1992|pp=9-13}} The principal area of settlement in the 5th century has been identified as between the lower [[River Ouse, Sussex|Ouse]] and [[River Cuckmere|Cuckmere]] rivers in East Sussex, based on the number of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries there.<ref name=brandon23>Martin Welch. Early Anglo-Saxon Sussex ''in'' Peter Brandon's. The South Saxons. pp. 23–25.</ref> However, there are two cemeteries in West Sussex at [[Highdown Hill|Highdown]], near Worthing and Apple Down, 11&nbsp;km (7&nbsp;mi.) northwest of Chichester.{{efn|At Appledown 282 cremations and inhumations were recorded.{{sfn|Down|Welch|1990|pp=9-10}}}} The area between the Ouse and Cuckmere was believed to have been the location for the federate treaty settlement of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries.<ref name=brandon23/> Whatever the original settlement pattern of the early Germanic settlers, their culture came to rapidly dominate the whole of Sussex.{{sfn|Gardiner|2010|pp=30-31}}

There is some evidence to support the treaty hypothesis, based on the grave finds of the period.<ref name="welch23">Martin Welch, ''Early Anglo-Saxon Sussex'', pp. 25–26</ref> For example, the excavation of one of the cemeteries, at Rookery Hill at [[Bishopstone, East Sussex]], yielded late Roman or insular Roman metalwork including a [[Quoit (brooch)|Quoit Brooch Style buckle]], which would indicate settlement here to the early 5th century.<ref name="bell39">Martin Bell: ''Saxon Settlements and buildings in Sussex'', in Brandon (1978), pp. 39-40</ref>
Subsequent excavations revealed a considerable area of Saxon buildings. Of the 22 buildings excavated, three were sunken huts, 17 are rectangular founded on individual post holes, one is represented by post holes between which are beam slots, and one by eight single large posts.<ref name="bell39"/>

Highdown is the only 5th-century Saxon cemetery found outside the Ouse/Cuckmere area, and is 2&nbsp;km from a hoard of Roman gold and silver that was found in 1997.<ref name=white28>Sally White. Early Saxon Sussex c.410-c.650 ''in'' Leslies. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 28–29</ref>{{sfn|White|Manley|Jones|Orna-Ornstein|1999|pp=301-315}} The [[List of Roman hoards in Great Britain#patching|Patching hoard]], as it came to be known, contained a coin as recent as 470.{{efn|The coin was a gold ''[[Solidus (coin)|solidus]]'' struck in the name of [[Severus III]]. These coins were also minted after Severus's death so the coin from Patching is dated in the range of 461-470 rather than to the actual reign of Severus.{{sfn|Abdy|2013|p=107}}}} Thus, Highdown cemetery would have been in use by Saxons when the hoard was buried at Patching.{{sfn|White|Manley|Jones|Orna-Ornstein|1999|pp=301-315}} The settlement that used Highdown as a burial ground in the 5th century has never been identified, but White speculates that there may have been some link between Patching and Highdown, and Welch has suggested that a Romano-British community was based there and that they controlled a group of Saxon mercenaries.<ref name="brandon23"/>{{sfn|White|Manley|Jones|Orna-Ornstein|1999|pp=301-315}}

Despite the difficulties presented by the large forest tract of the Weald that separated Sussex from Surrey, similarities in the archaeological record from this period between Sussex and Surrey help to substantiate the claim of Ælle of Sussex to be the first ''[[Bretwalda]]'' in the [[Thames Valley]].{{sfn|Loyn|1991| p=37}} Such unified regional commands were probably not long-lasting.{{sfn|Loyn|1991| p=37}}  [[Nowell Myres|J. N. L. Myres]] posits that archaeological evidence, in the form of distinctive Saxon saucer brooches, suggests that Ælle's forces penetrated  north as far as modern day Oxfordshire and [[Gloucestershire]] to the west.{{sfn|Myres|1989|pp=138-139}} [[H. R. Loyn]] suggests that this initial regional hegemony may have ended after the Battle of [[Mount Badon]].<ref>{{harvnb|Loyn|1991| p=30}}</ref>