The stone age covers a lengthy period in man's history when the most durable tools available to man were made from stone.

Eastern Essex provided a good home for ancient man with artefacts still being discovered throughout the area.

Historical research is still on going with stone age finds appearing in national and local museums such as Burnham Museum.

Items recovered include

Axe Heads - Scraping tools - Sharp engraving tools - Boring tools - Saws with serrated edges - Hammerheads - Arrowheads

The items date from all main periods of the Stone age - Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic.

The main areas where items are found include the land in

Mundon, Mayland and Steeple surrounding Mayland and Lawling Creeks

Land adjoining the Blackwater at St Lawrence and Bradwell

Land adjoining the Crouch at North Fambridge, Althorne and Burnham

Flint implements recovered from the bed of the River Crouch

What do we know about stone age man?

Early man killed animals to provide food and used skins for warmth.

While man did not cultivate crops he made great use of vegetation occurring naturally by eating leaves, roots and fruits.

No dairy products were available as animals had yet to be domesticated.

From the evidence of finds we know that Eastern Essex was a popular area for stone age man.

The area around Mayland and Lawling Creeksea is especially rich with over 1,000 stone age items recovered.

There is little flint to be found in Eastern Essex which means that flint must have been carried from other areas of Essex or even further away where it would occur naturally.

This effort must have been made worthwhile by the good hunting/ gathering or comparatively good living conditions found in this area.

We know that although stone age man was a hunter/gatherer he began to build the first houses often no more than crude structures using trees and branches or animal hides to provide a rudimentary shelter form the elements.

Sadly these forms of habitation have left few traces which mean that the stone tools provide the best clues as to areas that early man lived and hunted.