Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
Location | Kent |
---|---|
Grid reference | TQ 597 742 [1] |
Interest | Geological |
Area | 3.9 hectares (9.6 acres) [1] |
Notification | 1988 [1] |
Location map | Magic Map |
Swanscombe Skull Site or Swanscombe Heritage Park is a 3.9-hectare (9.6-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Swanscombe, north-west Kent, England. [1] [2] It contains two Geological Conservation Review sites [3] [4] and a National Nature Reserve. [5] The park lies in a former gravel quarry, Barnfield Pit. [6]
The area was already known for the finds of numerous Palaeolithic-era handaxes —mostly Acheulean and Clactonian artifacts, some as much as 400,000 years old—when in 1935/1936 work at Barnfield Pit uncovered two fossilised skull fragments. These fragments came to be known as the remains of Swanscombe Man but were later found to have belonged to a young woman. [7] The Swanscombe skull has been identified as early Neanderthal [8] or pre-Neanderthal, [9] dating to the Hoxnian Interglacial around 400,000 years ago. [6]
The skull fragments were found in the lower middle terrace gravels at a depth of almost 8 metres (26 ft). They were found by Alvan T. Marston, an amateur archaeologist who visited the pit between quarrying operations to search for flint tools. A third fragment from the same skull was found in 1955 by Bertram and John Wymer. Swanscombe is one of only two sites in Britain that have yielded Lower Paleolithic human fossils, the other being Boxgrove Quarry, West Sussex, where 500,000-year-old leg bones and teeth ("Boxgrove Man") have been found.
Further excavations, carried out between 1968 and 1972 by Dr John d'Arcy Waechter, uncovered more animal bone and flint tools and established the extent of the former shoreline on which the bones were found. Most of the bone finds are now in the Natural History Museum in London, with the stone finds at the British Museum.
The other key paleolithic sites in the UK are Happisburgh, Pakefield, Pontnewydd, Kents Cavern, Paviland and Gough's Cave.
Kents Cavern is a cave system in Torquay, Devon, England. It is notable both for its archaeological and geological features. The cave system is open to the public and has been a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1952 and a Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1957.
Swanscombe /ˈswɒnzkəm/ is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford.
Eartham Pit is an internationally important archaeological site north-east of Boxgrove in West Sussex with findings that date to the Lower Palaeolithic. The oldest human remains in Britain have been discovered on the site, fossils of Homo heidelbergensis dating to 500,000 years ago. Boxgrove is also one of the oldest sites in Europe with direct evidence of hunting and butchering by early humans. Only part of the site is protected through designation, one area being a 9.8-hectare (24-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, as well as a Geological Conservation Review site.
Paleolithic Europe, or Old Stone Age Europe, encompasses the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age in Europe from the arrival of the first archaic humans, about 1.4 million years ago until the beginning of the Mesolithic around 10,000 years ago. This period thus covers over 99% of the total human presence on the European continent. The early arrival and disappearance of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, the appearance, complete evolution and eventual demise of Homo neanderthalensis and the immigration and successful settlement of Homo sapiens all have taken place during the European Paleolithic.
Cannoncourt Farm Pit is a 0.3-hectare (0.74-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Maidenhead in Berkshire. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Baker's Hole is a 6.9 hectares geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, mostly consisting of a back-filled quarry, adjacent to Ebbsfleet International railway station in Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. It is a nationally significant site for finds during quarrying of Stone Age tools, which are now dispersed among many museums.
Wansunt Pit is a 1.9-hectare (4.7-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dartford Heath between Crayford in the London Borough of Bexley and Dartford in Kent. It is also a Geological Conservation Review site. It is important geologically because it exposes the Dartford Heath Gravel, and the relationship of this exposure to the Swanscombe sequence and the Thames Terraces is a controversial issue in Thames Pleistocene studies. The site is part of Braeburn Park, a nature reserve managed by the London Wildlife Trust.
Bugle Quarry is a 0.08-hectare (0.20-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hartwell in Buckinghamshire. The local planning authority is Aylesbury Vale District Council. It has two entries in the Geological Conservation Review of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Lion Pit is a 2.5-hectare (6.2-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Grays in Essex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site, and part of the Chafford Gorges Nature Park, which is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.
Hoxne Brick Pit is a 1.3-hectare (3.2-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hoxne in Suffolk, England. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Sturry Pit is a 0.7 hectares geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Canterbury in Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Aylesford Pit is a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Maidstone in Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Wells Chalk Pit is a 4-hectare (9.9-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the eastern outskirts of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. It is a Geological Conservation Review site, and it is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.