GIS analysis of spatial patterning in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic findspots recorded in the Benjamin Harrison archive at Maidstone Museum and selected museums elsewhere.

Abstract

Palaeolithic study in the Weald is sporadic and piecemeal, with many researchers using antiquarian collector’s data from museums that are uncurated and poorly understood. One of the major collections for this area is that of Benjamin Harrison from Ightham in Kent, whose archive is predominately stored in Maidstone Museum. This study combines Antiquarian archives with the power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to see if there are spatial patterns in the data of Harrison, which could inform future research and provide insight into possible locations that Palaeolithic artefacts may be found.
The first level of analysis was of the artefacts themselves. Harrison’s artefacts at Maidstone Museum were firstly curated into a useable database, cross- referencing where possible his lithic artefacts with his written logbooks, sketches and notebooks. A secondary database was created with those artefacts that could be spatially located using annotations from the artefact only. This formed the basis of the study.
GIS was then used to look for patterns in the data using six main areas of analysis, geological analysis, proximity to waterways, analysis of abrasion, slope analysis and landuse, and average nearest neighbour analysis.
The outcome of this analysis was that the two most likely location for Palaeolithic artefacts in the Wealden area of Kent are on the Lower Greensand and on gravels. Lower Palaeolithic artefacts
were more prevalent near to waterways, and especially at interfluves, and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts were found further away from the rivers and streams. The artefacts presented as clustered rather than in a random pattern, which was most likely partly due to collection bias, but could also be a product of the geology having an effect upon the positioning of the artefacts. It is possible that that some of the findspots could be due to hominin discard. The artefacts that are fresh or even slightly rolled may not have moved far from their place of deposition.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Patricia Mary Jones: orcid.org/0009-0003-4061-5587

ORCID for mac Mcnabb: orcid.org/0000-0002-1841-4864

ORCID for William Davies: orcid.org/0000-0003-1830-5403

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