Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Late Upper Palaeolithic (Long Blade) flints, "Springhead Lower Floor", Ebbsfleet Valley, recovered by JPT Burchell in the 1930s

Location accurate to 100m based on available information

Monument Types

• LITHIC WORKING SITE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

Burchell recovered abundant lithic assemblages from two distinct horizons towards the base of the Ebbsfleet alluvium, on the west side of the Ebbsfleet at Springhead, near the east edge of the large Southfleet Pit in c. 1938 (1). Typically, he does not specify the findspot, but its location is recorded in British Museum archives as being the more-southerly of the two designated SM areas by the Ebbsfleet, Kent SM 268b (2). As documented by Jacobi (3), the flint artefact assemblage from the lower of these horizons, the "Springhead Lower Floor", is dominated by large blades, large blade-cores and tools such as lames machurees, suggesting attribution to the final Late Upper Palaeolithic Long Blade industry.


Location accurate to 100m based on available information

<1> Burchell JPT, 1938, Two Mesolithic 'floors' in the Ebbsfleet Valley of the Lower Thames (Article in serial). SKE51529.

<2> Sieveking G de G,, 1972, Letter in British Museum archives at Franks House, Northfleet file (Miscellaneous Material). SKE51530.

<3> Jacobi, R.M, 1982, Later hunters in Kent: Tasmania and the earliest Neolithic (Article in monograph). SKE29693.

Sources and further reading