Were people living here before the fort was built? What would the local people have been doing?

There is evidence of an Iron Age hillfort on Barcombe Hill behind the site and we know there were people here. We have not found any evidence of inhabitants before the Romans on the fort site but we do have 9 forts on top of each other and it becomes very difficult to get down to those first levels. The local people would have mixed which the Roman, some adopting their customs and trading with them.