Over 160 years ago, the first prehistoric stone tools were discovered on the foreshore near Reculver and recognised as the work of ancient humans. 

Since then, hundreds more artefacts have been found along the Herne Bay coastline, together with fossils of mammoths, elephants, and other long-extinct Ice Age animals. Although Reculver is one of the oldest and most continuously collected Palaeolithic sites in the world, the context in which these discoveries were made has long limited their contribution to broader debates about early human occupation in Britain.

This talk presents new insights from recent investigations at Reculver, alongside a valley-wide study of ancient courses of the River Stour. Together, these are starting to resolve long-standing questions about the age and character of the archaeological assemblage—who made these tools, and what kinds of environments the early humans encountered in these ancient landscapes.

A talk by Pete Knowles Ph.D Researcher, Durham University Department of Archaeology and Geography