Another Look at the Cuxton Handaxe Assemblage

Abstract

The well-known Palaeolithic site at Cuxton, Kent (TQ 710 665) is situated on a remnant of Pleistocene terrace deposits of the Medway, which lies on a chalk spur at the junction of the main river and one of its former tributaries (Fig. 1). These deposits have been known as a source of Palaeolithic artefacts since at least 1889 (Payne 1893, cited in Tester 1965), and have been the subject of two controlled excavations, the first by P.J. Tester in 1962–3 (Tester 1965), and the second by John Cruse (on behalf of the Maidstone Area Archaeology Group) in 1984 (Cruse 1987).