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Ebbsfleet (Baker's Hole)
Kent

 

 

Site Number 257 (This is an AHOB Key Site)
Nearest Town: Swanscombe
National Grid Reference: TQ611743
Lat: 51.44507 Lon: 0.31806

Two important Levallois assemblages comes from the western flanks of the Ebbsfleet Valley, including the celebrated site of Baker’s Hole (Northfleet). The Baker’s Hole assemblage was collected by workmen of the Associated Portland Cement company from chalky mass movement deposits (“coombe rock”). These represented a cold stage referred to MIS 8, and contained Woolly Rhinoceros. A more extensive mammalian and molluscan fauna was recovered from overlying fluvial deposits (the “Lower Gravels”), representing both cool and temperate episodes, and dated to early MIS 7. Major J.P.T. Burchell collected a second Levallois assemblage from the Lower Gravels. The fluvial gravels are sealed by colluvial brickearths (including the “Temperate Bed”) rich in mollusca. From these Burchell recovered artefacts (including handaxes) reworked from the higher, and older, Swanscombe terrace at Rickson’s Pit. Recent excavations were undertaken by the British Museum in the 1970s, by Wenban-Smith in the 1990s, and more recently extensive excavations were undertaken during the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the early 2000s. Amino acid ratios of the Upper Loam suggest an MIS 7 age (Penkman et al., 2011). This site is very near the Swanscombe hominin site at Barnfield Pit and to Southfleet Road.


Horizons recorded at Ebbsfleet (Baker's Hole)

Unit Name Epoch Biozone MIS
Composite units (Horz Num: 266) Middle Pleistocene Mixed 7-8

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