Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A series of small caves and shallow rock shelters in an outcropping shelf of sandstone, just below the summit of Oldbury. Although excavations were carried out at Oldbury by Harrison in 1890, there remains some uncertainty surrounding the exact position of the excavation. In 1965 further excavations were carried out in the area TQ 5856 5653. As a result of these excavations it was concluded that the rock shelters on the east edge of Oldbury Hill were not likely to have been occupied by Pleistocene man. Their present form may be very different from their Pleistocene form, and unless all trace of occupation was removed by erosion before the commencement of sedimentation, no cultural debris of Pleistocene man was left near them. A highly characteristic series of stone tools was found in situ both by Harrison and the 1965 excavators. Extensive quarrying has altered the configuration of the spur, but it was once capped by hard rock which was weathered by frost shattering. The excavators suggest that a rock overhang existed at the end of the spur in Pleistocene times and that it afforded protection from the south-west and west and possibly the north as well. The site is a vantage point looking east towards the Medway valley. The lithic assemblage from Oldbury north is typical of the Mousterian of Acheulian tradition, and it is the richest Mousterian assemblage in Britain. In comparison to French sites it seems that occupation here was less concentrated, perhaps seasonal.

Images

Monument Types

• CAVE (CAVE, Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)

Associated Finds

• CORE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• HANDAXE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• RETOUCHED FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)

Full description

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[TQ 5840 5650] Rock Shelters [NAT] [TQ 5857 5654] Flint Implements found A.D. 1890 -9. [NAT] (1)

The caves or shelters on the eastern face of Oldbury Hill were excavated by B. Harrison in 1890 when 49 palaeolithic implements and 648 flakes were found. (2-3)

A series of small caves and shallow rock shelters in an outcropping shelf of sandstone, just below the summit of Oldbury. Some of the caves have been blocked up with cemented stone walling. Harrison's collection is in store in Maidstone Museum but it is impossible to distinguish individual finds. (4)

Description of rock shelters. (5)

Many Palaeoliths were collected from the east side of the hill during the 19th century and it was believed that they originally came from "shelters" formed by the hollows in the sandstone, which it was suggested, were habitation sites. These, however, have been eroded in post-glacial times and it seems that the Palaeoliths were not associated with them. (6)

Excavations at Oldbury in Kent: The Palaeolithic Occupation. Although excavations were carried out at Oldbury by Harrison in 1890, there remains some uncertainty surrounding the exact position of the excavation. In 1965 further excavations were carried out in the area TQ 5856 5653. As a result of these excavations it was concluded that the rock shelters on the east edge of Oldbury Hill were not likely to have been occupied by Pleistocene man. Their present form may be very different from their Pleistocene form, and unless all trace of occupation was removed by erosion before the commencement of sedimentation, no cultural debris of Pleistocene man was left near them. A highly characteristic series of stone tools was found in situ both by Harrison and the 1965 excavators at point N (see Illustration Card). Extensive quarrying has altered the configuration of the spur,but it was once capped by hard rock which was weathered by frost shattering to form the stony cultural layer of site N. The excavators suggest that a rock overhang existed at the end of the spur in Pleistocene times and that it afforded protection from the south-west and west and possibly the north as well. The site is a vantage point looking east towards the Medway valley. The lithic assemblage from Oldbury N is typical of the Mousterian of Acheulian tradition, and it is the richest Mousterian assemblage in Britain. In comparison to French sites it seems that occupation here was less concentrated, perhaps seasonal. There is no geological means of dating the Oldbury site, but it would seem most likely to belong to the ??????? interstadial or conceivably the succeeding interstadial. (7-8)

Flint implements and rock shelters at Oldbury Hill. (9)

Harrison's excavations in 1890 at Oldbury Hill. (Authority not consulted.) (10)

Oldbury Hill as a "Handaxe Mousterian" occupation site with Levalloisian flakes and a number of "bout coupe" handaxes. About 31 Palaeolithic axes have been found at Oldbury altogether, they are now in the British Museum (21); Maidstone Museum (8); and Manchester Museum (2). (11)

Palaeoliths, rock shelters and Neolithic implements. (12)

Report on a four day evaluation excavation to ascertain the depth of archaeological deposit and current and future plough damage. It is unlikely that any archaeological deposits exist or survive within the interior of the fort along the line of the trenches and that an eveluaton on the four fields which the owner wishes to replant his with new trees should be maintained. (13)

Numerous Palaeolithic material has been recovered from the slope below the postulated "Rockshelters" forming (before removal by quarrying) the brow of Oldbury Hill, partly from excavations and partly surface-finds. Known finds (many of which in the British Museum) were recorded by Roe in the 1960s (14): c. 50 handaxes, c. 500 flakes, c. 20 flake-tools, and cores/flakes from a late Middle Palaeolithic discoidal core industry (Levalloisian) (15). The site was then listed in the Southern Rivers Project in the 1990s (16).

ROCK SHELTER - ONE OF SEVERAL. Personae: HARRISON,B. Types: CAVE (Photograph). SKE108.

ROCK SHELTER - ONE OF SEVERAL.PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS FOUND (TQ 5857 5654) BETWEEN 1890-99 Types: CA (Photograph). SKE107.

<1> OS 6" 1961 (OS Card Reference). SKE48369.

<2> Harrison of Ightham 1928 155 (E R Harrison) (OS Card Reference). SKE43706.

<3> VCH Kent 1 1908 313 (OS Card Reference). SKE50830.

<4> F1 ASP 05-AUG-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE41936.

<4> Field report for monument TQ 55 NE 26 - August, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE2769.

<5> The Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist 11 1905 27-28 photo (ed J Romilly Allen) (OS Card Reference). SKE50499.

<6> Arch J 126 1969 242 (E Warman) (OS Card Reference). SKE36551.

<7> Univ of London Inst of Archaeology Bulletin No 8 1969 (1970) 151-76 ilus (D Collins and A Collins) (OS Card Reference). SKE50697.

<8> Arch Cant 85 1970 211-212 (D Collins) (OS Card Reference). SKE35824.

<9> Arch Cant 45 1933 142-161 illus (E Harrison) (OS Card Reference). SKE35149.

<10> Brit Assoc Rep 1891 352 652 (OS Card Reference). SKE38335.

<10> ROCK SHELTER - ONE OF SEVERAL. Personae: HARRISON,B. Types: CAVE (Photograph). SKE108.

<10> ROCK SHELTER - ONE OF SEVERAL.PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS FOUND (TQ 5857 5654) BETWEEN 1890-99 Types: CA (Photograph). SKE107.

<11> PPS 34 1968 7 18 (D A Roe) (OS Card Reference). SKE48593.

<12> Arch J 38 1881 232-3 (F C J Spurrell) (OS Card Reference). SKE36623.

<13> English Heritage, 1992 Jun, Evaluation Excavation Report For Oldbury Camp, Kent (Unpublished document). SWX6800.

<14> Roe, D.A., 1968, Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Sites, p 170 (Monograph). SWX6570.

<15> Cook J, Jacobi RM, , 1998, Discoidal core technology in the Palaeolithic at Oldbury, Kent. (Article in serial). ske55074.

<16> Wessex Archaeology, 1993, The Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project, Report No.2: The South West and South of the Thames [Vol. I - text], NWK6.94 (Monograph). SWX6569.

Sources and further reading

Related records

Related thematic articles

• Palaeolithic Kent (Thematic Essay)