The Neolithic Age
Some writers,[1] judging from the flint implements found in various parts of Kent, have been inclined to think that they can trace evidence of an intermediate stage between the Palæolithic Age and the Neolithic Age. The term mesolithic has been suggested for this period, but although there are undoubtedly intermediate types as far as form is concerned, and neolithic man may have been influenced in his tool-making by palæolithic tools[2] found on the surface of the ground, it must not therefore be concluded that there was continuity of race. The evidence points fairly clearly to the existence of a long interval between the two ages, during which great physical changes took place, one of which being the severance of the British Isles from the Continent.
The Neolithic Age forms a very important chapter in the pre-historic past of Kent. Many competent observers have turned their attention to the subject, and there is quite a considerable literature illustrative of it. This will be referred to in the foot-notes; but the following account must necessarily be as concise as possible.
From the large numbers of implements found in nearly every part of Kent, one is justified in assuming that there was a large population here during the Neolithic Age. Stone implements and weapons, earthworks, burials and associated megalithic structures all point to this conclusion. Worked flints have been found in practically every parish in Kent, but traces of dwellings and graves are much less abundant. There can be no doubt that the extensive cultivation of the soil is responsible for their disappearance. Careful research, however, particularly in places where the land is too poor to repay the trouble of cultivation, has shown that traces of dwellings of the Neolithic Age remain in greater numbers than had generally been suspected hitherto.
The following are brief particulars of the more important indications or remains of neolithic settlements in Kent:
Broadstairs. Between Broadstairs and Ramsgate quite close to the little valley known as Dumpton Gap, which runs down to the sea, the present writer has found numerous flakes, scrapers and cores of flint of a character and under circumstances which point to the probability of this having been a settlement.[3] Some of the implements, found here and at Birchington, and other parts of this coast have been made out of the tabular flint which occurs in the adjacent chalk cliffs.
Dartford Heath. There are several earthworks of various periods here. Some of them were probably made in the middle ages and for military purposes,[4] but others are apparently examples of the regular saucer-shaped depressions which have received the misleading name 'pit-dwellings,' and the scarcely more appropriate designation ' hut circles.' They are apparently exactly like those hut-floors in other parts of West Kent which have been shown to belong to the Neolithic Age.
Folkestone. Flint implements have been found here in abundance, and there can be no doubt that there was a neolithic settlement in the neighbourhood.
- ↑ F. C. J. Spurrell in Arch. Cant, xviii. 306; J. Allen Brown in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxii. 73, and New Ser. ii. 139-40. See also Arch. Journ. liii. 218-19.
- ↑ Some palæolithic implements have been found which have been re-worked in neolithic times.
- ↑ Col. A. Lane Fox has described several different deposits of flint implements in and near St. Peters, Thanet, associated with Roman remains. See Journ. Ethn. Soc. (1868) i. 1-12.
- ↑ Arch. Cant, xviii. 309.
