thumb|left|Detail of the Aylesford Bucket in the British Museum. Bronze Age swords have been discovered near here and an Iron Age settlement and Roman villa stood at Eccles. A cemetery of the British Iron Age discovered in 1886 was excavated under the leadership of Sir Arthur Evans (of Knossos fame), and published in 1890. Many of Evans' finds are now kept in the British Museum, including a bronze jug, pan and 'bucket' with handles in the form of a human face from a cremation burial. With the later excavation at Swarling not far away (discovery to publication was 1921–1925) this is the type site for Aylesford-Swarling pottery or the Aylesford-Swarling culture. Evans' conclusion that the site belonged to a culture closely related to the continental Belgae, remains the modern view, though the dating has been refined to the period after about 75 BC.Cunliffe, Barry W., Iron Age Communities in Britain, Fourth Edition: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC, Until the Roman Conquest, near Figure 1.4, 2012 (4th edition), Routledge, google preview, with no page numbers The village has been suggested as the site of the Battle of the Medway during the Roman invasion of Britain although there is no direct evidence of this.
thumb|left|Detail of the Aylesford Bucket in the British Museum. Bronze Age swords have been discovered near here and an Iron Age settlement and Roman villa stood at Eccles. A cemetery of the British Iron Age discovered in 1886 was excavated under the leadership of Sir Arthur Evans (of Knossos fame), and published in 1890. Many of Evans' finds are now kept in the British Museum, including a bronze jug, pan and 'bucket' with handles in the form of a human face from a cremation burial. With the later excavation at Swarling not far away (discovery to publication was 1921–1925) this is the type site for Aylesford-Swarling pottery or the Aylesford-Swarling culture. Evans' conclusion that the site belonged to a culture closely related to the continental Belgae, remains the modern view, though the dating has been refined to the period after about 75 BC.Cunliffe, Barry W., Iron Age Communities in Britain, Fourth Edition: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC, Until the Roman Conquest, near Figure 1.4, 2012 (4th edition), Routledge google preview, with no page numbers The village has been suggested as the site of the Battle of the Medway during the Roman invasion of Britain although there is no direct evidence of this.