A HISTORY OF KENT 



The Neolithic Age 



Some writers,' 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 Palasolithic 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 palasolithic tools'* 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, earth- 

 works, 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, parti- 

 cularly 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 indica- 

 tions 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 proba- 

 bility of this having been a settlement.' Some of the implements, found here and at Birch- 

 ington, 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,* but others are 

 apparently examples of the regular saucer-shaped depressions which have received the mis- 

 leading 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 palaeolithic implements have been found which have been re-worked in neolithic times. 



2 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. I-12. 



* Arch. Cant, xviii. 309. 



