Go to navigation
Prehistoric Medway 350,000 BC - 43AD
Some of the earliest human remains known in Britain have been
found in Kent. These Palaeolithic (or Old Stone Age) people used
tools made of stone, usually flint. Many examples of their
carefully made hand-axes have been found across Medway.
Medway’s Palaeolithic inhabitants lived in small nomadic groups.
They would have followed the animals they depended on for food and
hunted them with weapons of flint and wood. Many of the species
they encountered are extinct today but bones have been found
locally showing that the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and reindeer
were all roaming the landscape.
During the Neolithic period (the New Stone Age) very important
changes began to take place. For the first time people began to
live a settled existence. From about 4,000 BC, they began to use
their stone tools to clear forests and create open land. Instead of
roaming after game, migrating with the animals that they hunted,
people started farms. They grew wheat and raised animals, such as
sheep, pigs and cows.
Bronze, a mixture of copper and tin, first appeared in Britain
about 2,000 BC. It could be cast into complex shapes, creating new
tool types, ornaments and armour. When broken, it could also be
recycled, simply being re-cast into new objects.
Bronze tools show a steady pattern of development throughout the
period, which helps to date them. The numerous Medway finds show
that this area was relatively well populated during the Bronze Age.
This period would also have seen Medway’s inhabitants making
contact with people elsewhere in Britain and the Continent, with
goods being traded considerable distances.
It is likely that the Iron Age (from about 500 BC) saw the first
Medway town established at Rochester. As well as pottery and
domestic waste, moulds for casting Celtic gold coins have been
recovered from archaeological excavations on the High Street.
Resources
In the Beginning in Chatham: the Story of a Dockyard Town
and the Birthplace of the British Navy by James Presnail. The
Corporation of Chatham, 1952 (pp9-20).
Add this page to my Quick Links:
Add page
Send this page to a friend:
Send