Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Palaeolithic Handaxe finds from Darenth gravels near Dartford, including 10 from "Skull Pit".

Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)

Associated Finds

• HANDAXE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)

Full description

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Handaxe find from Darenth gravels near Dartford, a large and well-shaped specimen, illustrated by Newton (1), and recovered from a pit described as "near to his house", from which he also recovered numerous eoliths and natural pieces of flint mistakenly regarded by him as figurative sculptures, as well as a post-Palaeolithic human skull [see new record KHCP_M_04]. This pit can be equated with Smith's Pit, Warren Road, Wilmington [HER record TQ 57 SW 68] based on the equivalence of details provided by Newton (1) with those given by Shephard-Thorn (2). This is probably also the same site as the "Skull Pit, Dartford" mentioned by Roe (3) from which 10 handaxes are known.

<1> Newton WM,, 1913, On Palaeolithic figures of flint found in the old river alluvia of England and France and called Figure Stones., p125 (Article in serial). SKE32280.

<2> Shephard-Thorn, E.R., Edited text of Henry Stopes Memorial Lecture 1959, by Henry Dewey on: Palaeolithic Deposits of the Thames at Dartford Heath and Swanscombe., p21 (Unpublished document). SKE32257.

<3> Roe, D.A., 1968, Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Sites, p149 (Monograph). SWX6570.

Sources and further reading