Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Observations made by T Marston at various locations in Barnfield Pit, Swanscombe, throughout the 1930s revealed a series of important findings. Multiple in situ working floors and land surfaces, with a Palaeolithic date, were uncovered which included a wide variety of worked flint finds. The deposits uncovered also contained the Swanscombe Skull. (location accurate to the nearest 10m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BURIED LAND SURFACE (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)
• LITHIC WORKING SITE (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)

Associated Finds

• ANIMAL REMAINS (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)
• CORE (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)
• DEBITAGE (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)
• FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)
• HANDAXE (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)
• MOLLUSCA REMAINS (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)
• WORKED FLINT (Lower Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 150001 BC)

Full description

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Barnfield Pit, Swanscombe is one of Europe's most important Palaeolithic sites. It is located on a fluvial terrace deposit above the south side of the Thames, originally known as the Swanscombe 100-ft terrace but now formally named the Boyn Hill/Orsett Heath Formation (1).The terrace deposits comprise silts, sands and gravels of fluvial origin relating to the former Middle Pleistocene course of the Thames, laid down in the Hoxnian interglacial between 450,000 and 350,000 BP, late Marine Isotope Stage 12 to early MI Stage 10. These deposits are of international archaeological significance. First recognised as containing artefacts and faunal remains in the late 19th century (2), they have been demonstrated through a long history of subsequent investigations (3-8), to be exceptionally rich in flint tools from Palaeolithic occupation (9, 10). They also contain rich fossil faunal remains of contemporary animals (such as lion, rhino, extinct straight-tusked elephant, bear and many others), including those of archaic Homo Sapiens (Swanscombe Man), as well as other palaeoenvironmental evidence. Although Pleistocene deposits and their contained Palaeolithic remains are now lost in most of the main footprint of the quarry, important deposits are preserved in the southern part of the quarry and in the natural deposits further south. (8) Here, a fossil human skull was recovered from one horizon [The Upper Middle Gravel], with three separate refitting parts of the same skull being found on three separate occasions, in 1935, 1936 and 1955. (5, 6)

There are three main phases of deposits at Barnfield Pit. The lowest phase (I) consists of gravels and silts/sands [the "Lower Loam"] with a Clactonian lithic industry (cores, flakes and flake-tools) dating to early in the Hoxnian interglacial. This phase includes undisturbed Clactonian occupation surfaces within, and at the top of, the Lower Loam, as well as animal bones and other paleo-environmental remains such as molluscs and ostracods. The middle phase (II) consists of gravels and sandy gravels. These contain a rich Acheulian lithic industry and numerous fossil animal remains, with numerous fresh condition handaxes and debitage from their manufacture attesting to occupation on the spot. The skull pieces were found within the phase II deposits, at the base of the Upper Middle Gravel. The highest group of deposits is attributed to phase III, and mostly comprises clayey silt/sand - the "Upper Loam" - capped by a thin solifluction gravel. Contrary to general presumption (7), artefacts are scarce or absent in the Upper Loam, although numerous reworked artefacts have been found on its surface and within the Upper Gravel. The site is included in the Southern Rivers survey (11) and was visited for the KTG MES (12). A more detailed survey of surviving deposits then took place in 2003 (13)

Alvin T Marston, who was the first to discover part of the skull in 1935 and 1936 began to visit Barnfield Pit in 1933, collecting artefacts and making geological stratigraphic observations. Overall the stratigraphy identified by Marston was from top to bottom: Upper gravels and upper loam with a thickness of c.2.4m, yellow middle sands 3.7m to 4.3m in thickness, middle gravels, 3.1m to 3.7m in thickness, lower loam 1.2m to 1.8m in thickness, lower gravels 1.8m to 2.4m in thickness.

His archaeological observation can be divided into two groups, the pre middle Gravel channel phase and the cutting of the channel and the deposits which overlay it. He divided the lower gravel (which had been identified in section by a number of earlier investigations) into three sub units: the basal contained a small Clactonian Industry, characterised by flakes which were usually 5cm of less in length. The middle sub unit contained ordinary sized Clactonian artefacts characterised by a greenish patination, as well as Strepy type artefacts. The archaeology in this sub unit occurred in a single horizon which was considered to be a soliflucted deposit and was sealed by a clay layer. The third and highest sub unit of the lower gravel contained only Clactonian artefacts, which were large and brown in colour. The small Clactonian in the basal unit was postulated to have come from a nearby working floor as this lower most sub unit was not present on other locations within Barnfield pit. Above the gravel was a loam (known as the lower loam) Marston claimed that a land surface developed at the top of this loam which he identified by the presence of white patinated Clactonian artefacts which had been exposed to sub aerial weathering. The middle gravel, located above the lower loam, was also divided into sub units, the lower middle gravel which had been cut by a major channel (a river channel) and then infilled by the upper middle gravel. Within the lower middle gravel Marston found evidence for Abbevillian artefacts and at the top of the lower middle gravel a lad surface on which Acheulian occupation occurred.

Within the channel created by the river and which cut the lower middle gravel left a series of beaches at its margin, the first of these revealed the fragments of skull (TQ 57 SE 219) the archaeology associated with it was Acheulian. The channel had been infilled by a series of gravels and loams and then Overlain by the upper loam (again a unit which had been encountered elsewhere at Barnfield pit) on the surface of this upper loam were white patinated bifaces and two small in situ working floors, one of which contained thinning flakes, and the other containing re fitting material. (8)

<1> Bridgland DR, 1994, Quaternary of the Thames. (Monograph). SKE32233.

<2> Stopes H,, 1895, A prehistoric metropolis in Kent. (Article in serial). SKE32279.

<3> Smith RA, Dewey H,, 1913, Stratification at Swanscombe: report on excavations made on behalf of the British Museum and H.M. Geological Survey. (Article in serial). SKE32207.

<4> Smith R.A and Dewey H, 1914, The High Terrace of the Thames: report on excavations made on behalf of the British Museum and H.M. Geological Survey. (Article in serial). SKE32181.

<5> Swanscombe Committee, 1938, Report on the Swanscombe skull: prepared by the Swanscombe Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute. (Article in serial). SKE32212.

<6> Ovey, C. D., 1964, The Swanscombe Skull: a Survey of Research on a Pleistocene Site (Monograph). SWX9319.

<7> Wymer, JJ, 1968, Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain as represented by the Thames Valley. (Monograph). SKE29697.

<8> Conway BW, McNabb J, & Ashton N, (ed's), 1996, Excavations at Barnfield Pit, Swanscombe, 1968–72. (Monograph). SKE32240.

<9> Wenban-Smith F. F., March 2004, The Stopes Palaeolithic Project: Final Report (Unpublished document). SWX12877.

<10> Wenban-Smith FF,, 2009, Henry Stopes (1852-1902): engineer, brewer and anthropologist. (Article in serial). SKE32263.

<11> Wessex Archaeology, 1993, The Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project, Report No.2: The South West and South of the Thames [Vol. I - text] (Monograph). SWX6569.

<12> Essex County Council & Kent County Council, 2003, Archaeological Survey of Mineral Extraction Sites around the Thames Estuary (Unpublished document). SKE12012.

<13> Wessex Archaeology, March 2004, Swanscombe Heritage Park and Craylands Gorge, Swanscombe, Kent. Archaeological and Geological Desk Based Assessment (Unpublished document). SWX12883.

Sources and further reading

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