This report presents the results of three projects undertaken by Oxford Archaeology in north-west Kent from 2005 to 2007, together providing evidence of human activity from the Palaeolithic and thereafter for all periods from Neolithic to medieval. Palaeolithic investigations at the A2/A282/M25 Improvement Scheme produced finds dating between 400,000 and 200,000 years BP, as well as two fresh flints from a surface dated to c.115,000-90,000 BP, when Britain was hitherto thought to be deserted. Intermittent activity during the prehistoric period, from the early Neolithic onwards, was succeeded by a late Iron Age/early Roman agricultural landscape and a late Roman enclosure, early-middle Saxon settlement and a medieval farmstead. The latest features reported relate to a Second World War anti-aircraft gun position. Excavation along the Eynsford to Horton Kirby Water Pipeline identified various prehistoric features, the most important being a middle-late Bronze Age ring ditch containing the remains of at least four cremated individuals. Late Iron Age/early Roman field boundaries were also recorded, as was a short-lived period of activity dated to the 11th-12th centuries. Excavation at Dartford Football Club produced Neolithic-Bronze Age flintwork and evidence for settlement of late Bronze Age-early Iron Age and late Iron Age to middle Roman date, after which it was turned over to agricultural use.
