Stopes Palaeolithic Archive

The Stopes Palaeothic Project is focused on the study of a substantial collection of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts made by Henry Stopes, a private collector, in the late 19th century. Most of the artefacts in the collection came from Pleistocene deposits exposed by quarrying in the Swanscombe area of Kent. This is both a key region for Palaeolithic archaeological evidence and one currently under severe development pressure. The collection is of particular signicance because it is supported by a catalogue giving details of where each artefact was found. The project set out to identify the geographic location of Stopes' find-spots, the stratigraphic context of artefacts and to relate this to mapped Pleistocene sedimentary units. The digital archive consists of the main project report, accompnied by a series of illustrations, appendices and a comprehensive volume of maps detailing the location of many findspots.