Palaeolithic flint artefacts, Purfleet (EHER 45378)

Palaeolithic flint artefacts were recovered from a slope wash or solifluction deposits eroded from a chalk cliff during evaluation in 1995.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. Part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link programme. An evaluation of 0.5ha land south of the Purfleet bypass in 1995. Deposits of interest represent the fill of an ancient river channel, aligned east to west. The evaluation consisted of the recording of the stratigraphy from a series of ten boreholes and four test pits. A considerable number of Palaeolithic flint artefacts were recovered from a slope wash or solifluction deposits eroded from a chalk cliff forming the southern edge of a paleochannel of the Thames. Lithic material was also recovered from fluvial sediments at the margin of the paleochannel. In both cases the flint was in relatively good condition, indicating that it had undergone little post-depositional re-working. Pollen was recovered from fine-grained sediments, but molluscs and bones were all but absent from the deposits investigated. <1>