Possible Mesolithic or Neolithic worked flint was excavated in 2021 at Cockering Farm, Canterbury. One of the pieces of worked flint thought to date from the Mesolithic/Neolithic periods was a multiplatform core recovered from the topsoil of one of the trenches. Two modified pieces of flint are also thought to date from this period. The presence of the flintwork is thought to suggest transitory Mesolithic/early Neolithic activity at the site; later Neolithic activity is present in the form of a pit feature and potentially other undated features, alongside flintwork (TR 15 NW 2620) (1).

During a strip, map, and sample excavation carried out in 2021, an assemblage of 265 pieces of worked flint (with a combined weight of 697g) and potentially dating to the Mesolthic period was excavated from a gravel deposit. The deposit measured 5.4x3x0.02-0.12m, and may have represented a former degraded flint-working surface. One of the tools was a probable Mesolithic small awl manufactured on a small flake. Other flint tools/manufacturing debris may have included an end scraper, chips, fragments, a crested blade, a bladelet fragment, and a blade.

A large number of undated features including hearths, linear features, post-holes, stake-holes, pits, and ditches were also present at the site. (2)

<1> Archaeology South-East, 2021, Archaeological and Geoarchaeological Evaluation Report Cockering Farm, Thanington, Canterbury, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE55574.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd., 2022, Land at and adjacent to Cockering Farm, Thanington, Canterbury, Kent Archaeological strip, map and sample excavation Post‐excavation assessment (Unpublished document). SKE55719.