ARCHAEOLOGICAL remains from a Bronze Age cemetery in Sussex have been revealed from the air, experts said.

A series of aerial photographs, released by government heritage agency Historic England, to mark the Festival of Archaeology, show some of the top finds made in recent years.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: "Our aerial archaeologists continue to transform our knowledge of England's past from traces visible from the air.

"We identify and record the archaeology in our landscapes from crop marks and soil marks this way.

"This not only supports archaeological research, but also gives us a better understanding of which parts of the land can be developed and which parts need further investigation because of what lies beneath."

Photographs taken in 2015 above Fittleworth, West Sussex, show five or six circular buried ditches which would have surrounded Bronze Age barrows which would have been burial places as well as being used by the living for ceremonies.

The discovery follows the news in The Argus that aerial laser scanning had been used to discover archaeological secrets under an area of ancient woodland which revealed prehistoric farming on "an astonishing scale" across the South Downs.

The discovery of large scale farming from before the Roman invasion in the South Downs National Park suggested a degree of civilisation closer to ancient Greece, Egypt or Rome.

In the latest photographs last year's dry summer revealed crop marks, caused by buried archaeological remains which hold more moisture than the surrounding undisturbed soil, in the Cambridgeshire clay.

They helped experts see the extent of an Iron Age/Roman settlement in Comberton, with ditched enclosures, round houses and tracks.

A dry summer also helped Historic England's aerial reconnaissance team identify a rare and unusual prehistoric site at Hornsea, East Yorkshire, with a central circular feature thought to be an "henge".

The site, surrounded by a field system which suggests it was reused as a settlement from the Bronze Age, is considered so important it has since been protected as a scheduled monument.

Low winter sunlight revealed details of an Iron Age/Roman settlement in Gillsmere Sike, Killington, Cumbria, with photographs showing two round houses as well as medieval ploughing which shows the area was in agricultural use for centuries.

Pictures taken from light aircraft also reveal some of the oldest type of monument in Britain, such as shots capturing crop marks which show elongated capsule shaped enclosures in Stoke Hammond, Buckinghamshire.

Historic England said the enclosures are neolithic long mortuary enclosures, thought to be where the dead were placed before burial, and at Stoke Hammond are surrounded by natural marks in the ground made in the last Ice Age.