Further Report on the Epi-Palælithic Factory Site at Lower Halstow, Kent

Extract

Through the generosity of the Trustees of the Percy Sladen Fund I have been enabled to continue the investigation of the factory site, the preliminary examination of which was reported in the Proceedings of this Society last year. The “floor” there described was situated on the right bank of the “Sunk Channel” of the River Medway, at a point one mile north of the Church at Lower Halstow. It rested, in part, upon the surface of the London Clay, and, in part, upon the surface of an alluvium which is older than the gravels of the 10-ft. terrace. The covering deposits, consisting of rainwash, peats, and marsh clays, amounted to a thickness of just over six feet.

In area the “floor” occupied some 100 feet by 60 feet and comprised a series of circular patches 3 feet to 4 feet wide and 3 ins. to 4 ins. deep, sunk below the surface of the London Clay. The patches consisted of blackened earth and calcined flints (see Plate I., fig. 2). The flint implements, together with the waste and raw material, occurred more numerously in these patches.

This year the hearths of a further factory site revealed themselves at a point ¼ of a mile north of the Church. They rested upon the surface of the London Clay and were covered by strata, similar both in composition and sequence to those of the northern site.