Palaeolithic implements group, Botany Pit, Purfleet (EHER 5008)

200 artifacts, including 1 handaxe, 1 core, the remainder being flakes, possibly Levalloisian, and two fragments of animal teeth were found when a section was dug bordering a chalk pit.

Palaeolithic flakes found. Also a hand-axe, at NGR TQ 555785 (also collection with Hornchurch Arch. Group-what does this mean?), found 1960-1961. <1> Finds in Thurrock Museum. <2> Botany Pit was extended in 1961, removing the sand and gravel overburden which was found to be rich in palaeolithic finds. The sand and gravel abutted against a steep chalk cliff to the south which has been nearly all quarried away. Mr A Snelling made finds here from searching the pit floor and controlled excavation. Although more than one flint industry may be represented there were no stratigraphic reasons to separate them, nor was any class of artefact distinctly different in condition to another, most being sharp or slightly rolled. "Some sharp hand-axes, one at least a well-made ovate, were found, according to the gravel diggers, on the chalk beneath the gravel, but the most significant feature revealed by Snelling's careful investigation was the concentration of material towards the chalk cliff, and the most likely interpretation is that a mass of palaeolithic industrial debris lying on a chalk slope was washed over by torrential flood water, dispersing it into the sand and gravel that rapidly accumulated. The chalk at Purfleet is rich in fine-quality flint and most of the artefacts may well represent an exploitation of it, where the chalk was exposed on the left bank of an old course of the Mar Dyke". Artefacts and hundreds of flakes in British Museum. <3> gives lists of artefacts found which included: pebble chopper-cores, chopper-cores, proto hand-axes, proto tortoise cores, proto two-platformed prismatic cores, tortoise cores, hand-axes, a quartzite hammerstone and a side scraper. Few of the hundreds of flakes had secondary working. Some were from the proto-tortoise cores. The industry is described as Proto-Levalloisian. <3> <4> The chalk cliff has been completely quarried away. The gravel producing the flints "rested on Chalk and, towards the Mar Dyke, on Coombe Rock". The industry consists of cores and flakes with very few flakes with secondary working. "Flakes had been produced by simple alternate flaking, as in Clactonian Industries, or by a crude Levallois technique. None of the Levallois flakes and cores approach the refinement of the Baker's Hole Northfleet Industry. The artefacts are nearly all slightly rolled and in very distinctive condition to the few sharp hand-axes found 'in situ' by Snelling. These apparently lay on or close to the chalk floor and could pre-date the Proto-Levalloisian Industry". Two hand-axes are in Thurrock Museum. Both are in sharp condition, one in unpatinated or stained black flint. The lack of tools and the extravagant primary flaking of flint suggest the 'Industry' results from use of flint nodules exposed in the Upper Chalk of the ancient river cliff, flint being knapped on the spot with selected flints taken away. <2> <5>-<9> Site Assessment = Accession numbers of non-Thurrock Museum items? Information from NRHE Section dug bordering a chalk pit revealed 200 artifacts, including 1 hand-axe, one core, the remainder being flakes and two fragments of animal teeth. The culture was very probably Levalloisian. A close watch is being kept on the site. <10>