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Description: | Complete Neolithic flint axe. Hazel Martingell notes that the axe is flaked on both surfaces except where there are areas of cortex. The flint is rough in quality, probably a large cobble originally. It measures 128mm long, 37mm wide, 36mm thick and weighs 271.26g. The knapping technique consists of the removal of deep flakes at the butt end and flat shallow flake removals at the blade end. The artefact gradually expands from butt to blade. This axe was recovered from the northern part of a ring ditch.
The presence of large diagnostic flint artefacts on a site is always of interest. Usually, it is accepted that they are indicators of people utilising that location during a particular period in prehistory. But it is also possible, that later peoples recover these artefacts from elsewhere and bring them back for their own use. At this site however, there are additional finds of smaller worked flints of Mesolithic, Neolithic and later activity at the site.
Close by at an Iron Age site, a Mesolithic rod microlith was recovered in 2005. Microliths of the obliquely backed variety have also been found at nearby Halstead and Ford Street. There are many more finds of Neolithic flint artefacts, axes turn up singly or within groups of smaller artefacts, as at Fordham.
These other sites, here referred to, are also in river valley locations, beside the river. It should be born in mind, that in the past, they would have been liable to flooding, or the river may even have changed course, so we could be looking at seasonal use rather than permanent habitation during the Mesolithic and Neolithic at this site. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | McDonald, Caroline - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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