,<>^V""""'""H 





''Oiii^ FIG 3. 

 Diagrams showing Types of Neolithic Hut-floors 

 AND Cooking Pits at Hayes Common, Kent. 



EARLY MAN 



Grovehurst, Milton, near Sittincbourne. Some good examples of neolithic hut- 

 floors were found here in the year 1 87 1, but the exact archseological significance is consider- 

 ably obscured by the fact that with curious persistence they have been described as Celtic in 

 the published accounts. * Among the remains found were large numbers of flakes, and various 

 implements such as arrow-heads, knives, ground celts, etc., the whole mixed up with a layer 

 of vegetable matter that had accumulated upon the floor to a depth of about i foot. 



Hayes. On Hayes Common ^ there 

 are several groups of neolithic hut-floors 

 associated with lines of ditches and 

 mounds. These are circular in outline, 

 they vary in form and size from shallow 

 depressions a few inches deep and about 

 4 ft. in diameter to hollows 2 ft. 6 in. 

 deep and about 30 ft. in diameter, and 

 they fall into the three following pretty 

 well defined types : — 



1. Large pits from 10 ft. to 30 ft. 

 in diameter, and from 6 in. to 2 ft. 6 in. 

 deep, surrounded by a mound, with 

 trace of entrance, and containing no 

 considerable traces of fire. (See diagram, 



2. Pits similar in every way, but 

 with a low conical mound in the centre. 

 (See diagram, fig. 2.) 



3. Small pits from 4 ft. to 10 ft. 

 in diameter without an encircling mound, 

 and containing numerous reddened peb- 

 bles, fragments of charred wood and other indications of fire. (See diagram, fig. 3.) 



The first and second types were undoubtedly the floors of huts for human habitation, 

 whilst the third represents the sites of cooking fires placed at some little distance away from 

 the dwellings, which were constructed of interlaced branches and other inflammable materials. 

 From the shape and contents of these cooking holes it seems probable that the fire was made 

 on a large scale and maintained for a long time so as to make the earth sufficiently hot to cook 

 whole animals. This theory agrees with the evidence afforded by the arrangement and dis- 

 position of the hut-floors ; because it is clear that the dwellings were built in groups of from 

 four to six huts, each capable of accommodating from two to six individuals. Several of 

 these groups occur on Hayes Common, and it is extremely probable that the neolithic tribes 

 here lived in small communities. Neolithic implements and flakes have been found at various 



parts, but it is probable that many 

 more lie buried in the turf and the 

 layer of peat which lies below it. 

 In addition to the actual 

 earthen circles round the ancient 

 hut-floors there are, evidently in 

 association with them, a good 

 many lines of ditches and mounds 

 enclosing spaces in which animals 

 may very well have been secured. 

 Attention was drawn to these 

 works in 1878 by Mr. W. M. 

 Flinders Petrie, who read a paper 

 entitled ' Notes on Kentish Earth- 

 works' ^ at a meeting of the Kent 

 Archaeological Society at Bromley 

 in that year. Mr. Petrie drew 



— ^— Top of banK. 

 — — — Bottom of ditch 



Diagram No. 



Remains of Stockaded Enclosures, 

 Hayes, Kent. 



> Arch. Cant, xviii. 122-26; and Coll. Cant. 1-5. 



2 Arch. Cant, xviii. 15-16 ; Proc. Sue. Antiq. (ser. 2) xii. 258-63. 



3 Arch. Cant. xiii. 8-16. 



