Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Chipping floor/Mesolithic, Lower Halstow.

Monument Types

• LITHIC WORKING SITE (FLINT WORKING SITE, Early Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age - 10000 BC to 2200 BC?)

Associated Finds

• FLAKE (Prehistoric - 500000 BC to 42 AD)

Full description

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[TQ 8633 6770] Lower Halstow "southern floor". A Mesolithic flint factory site excavated from below a 4' accumulation of marsh deposits. It comprised a series of hearths and yielded implements similar to those from the "northern floor" [TQ 86 NE 8]. A portion of this floor had been reoccupied in Neolithic times and implements exhibiting polished surfaces and broken and unfinished leaf-arrowheads were plentifully distributed. (1)

The Lower Halstow industry may be placed in the latter half of the Mesolithic. It is characterised by tranchet axes and picks and by non-geometric microliths (2).

Finds in British and Maidstone Museum (3)- reference for this?

This site lies below high water mark (4).

TQ 863677, Mesolithic flint implements; surface finds near Burchell's 'southern floor', (see auth 1), and from its excavation, now in Maidstone Museum (5).

TQ 860677. Five flint arrowheads from this settlement are in the British Museum (6).

The Lower Halstow 'northern floor' (TQ 86 NE 8) and 'southern floor' became prominent in early literature and Lower Halstow gave its name to a culture dated to the Atlantic, confined to the south-east of England. The culture was characterised by a supposed presence of 'gravers tranchet' flake axes, 'true Thames picks', and a predominance of the macro - over micro - lithic element. In fact no flint axes can be identified with the assemblage, the core adzes are not markedly different from those found on other sites in south-east England and the predominance of adzes over microliths can be accounted for by the fact that the assemblage was excavated from sticky clay with no attempt to find particularly small artefacts (7).

Additional bibliographic references (8-11).

For other sites in the context of the inter-tidal zone see (12).

Additional references (13,14).

Site identified during 2002 survey there are still lots of flakes around. Three were retained (15).

Site covered by seaweed and no finds were located. (16)

<01> PPSEA 5 1925-7 217-23 288-96 illus 6" map (JPT Burchell) (OS Card Reference). SKE48631.

<02> The Mesolithic Age in Britain 1932 63-5 95 175 Illus (J G D Clark) (OS Card Reference). SKE50431.

<04> F1 CFW 02-JUL-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42391.

<05> CBA Res Rpt 20 Gaz Me Sites in Eng and Wales 1977 153 (Ed JJ Wymer) (OS Card Reference). SKE38909.

<06> BAR Rpt 75 1980 Flint Arrowheads pt2 463 (OS Card Reference). SKE37595.

<07> CBA RR 48 1982 Arch in Kent to AD 1550 16 (P Leach) (OS Card Reference). SKE38934.

<08> Arch of Kent 1930 41 258 (RF Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE36914.

<09> Ant 1 1927 105 (JPT Burchell) (OS Card Reference). SKE33104.

<10> The Stone Age in Scot 1954 119-21 175 Illus (AD Lacaille) (OS Card Reference). SKE50519.

<11> Arch NL 6 1957 90 (JPT Burchell) (OS Card Reference). SKE36801.

<12> Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, 1994, Inter-tidal archaeology in Kent (Unpublished document). SWX9353.

<13> Field report for monument TQ 86 NE 11 - July, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4533.

<14> Not Given (Collection). SKE6563.

<15> Wessex Archaeology, 2002, North Kent Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Phase II: Field Assessment (Pilot) (Bibliographic reference). SWX11840.

<16> Wessex Archaeology, 2005, North Kent Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey: Phase ll: Field Assessment Year One report (Unpublished document). SWX12121.

Sources and further reading