Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Shepherd's Lane, Dartford, 5 Palaeolithic handaxes mostly pointed but including at least one cordate

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)

Full description

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Shepherd's Lane, Dartford, 5 handaxes mostly pointed but including at least one cordate were seen by Roe (1). Three of them held at Dartford Museum were described by Wymer (2) as pointed (one of them small and found on the surface by FW Gill in 1890) and the other Dartford Museum specimen was a cordate. There were various pits along Shepherds Lane and this is one likely source, being two small pits either side of Shepherds Lane 800m to the east of Dartford Heath, far enough from Dartford Heath to be given a different name, but in a position where gravel-rich deposits are likely to have produced palaeoliths. The site is included in the SRPP (3) with another possible estimated location at TQ 529 737.

<1> Roe, D.A., 1968, Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Sites, p 149 (Monograph). SWX6570.

<2> Wymer, JJ, 1968, Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain as represented by the Thames Valley., p 328 (Monograph). SKE29697.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 1993, The Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project, Report No.2: The South West and South of the Thames [Vol. I - text], NWK 3.17 (Monograph). SWX6569.

Sources and further reading