The first season of excavations at Clacton‐on‐Sea, Essex, England: A brief report

Abstract

Preliminary excavations at Clacton‐on‐Sea, Essex, England, have revealed a gravel beach on the lee side of a sharp meander of a subsidiary river channel. Flint artefacts, typical of the Clactonian Industry, have been found in situ on this beach, mainly in mint condition. Associated with them are some faunal remains. This subsidiary channel, on the evidence of a series of borings, cuts into a major river channel about 160 m. wide, which had previously silted up with a fine, shelly sand. Marl eventually filled the subsidiary channel, burying the gravel beach. A few mint artefacts in this marl represent a later stage in the Clactonian, which may equate with the top of the freshwater beds found in the 1950 boring by Pike and Godwin, and dated to Zone IID of the Hoxnian Interglacial.