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Description: | 7 worked flints: These have all been knapped from high-quality flint: 1, 3, 5 and 6 are all black flint. 2 ad 7 are light grey, and 4 is grey. 1) 38.11mm by 30.28mm, by 5.66mm, and weighing 7.38g. It is a sub-rectangular flake that has been struck from a core. The most right-angled corner is also the bulb of percussion. One of the edges leading from this corner is totally straight, and has been made so by a line of minute pressure flake-scars. This piece is totally pristine apart from small amounts of mud in the creases of the flint, which suggest that it was created very recently- that is no more that a few hundred years ago, and judging by its perfect condition, probably a lot more recently than that. 2) A well-preserved blade blank that has been struck from a prepared core. 57.99mm by 18.94mm, by 6.11mm, at 6.21g. The dorsal surface has six longitudinal facets, and two more at the tip. The edges are still sharp, but the blade is twisted along its length, which may explain why it wasn't used and is still in its 'blank' form. 3) A rectangular flint that has been made from the end of a struck blade blank. 31.53mm, by 24.97mm, by 5.99mm, 5.27g. The dorsal surface has two facets, one of which is formed of the original outer cortex. The end (which has no bulb of percussion) has an interesting ripple and trough across the butt which may have resulted from an irregular flake. The edge which has no cortex has a series of small chips in it, which together with the shape of the piece suggest that this may be a gun flint, although quite a large one. 4) The end of a struck blade, of sub-(Isosceles) triangular shape, with a bulb of percussion at the top. 38.14mm, by 19.56mm, by 4.40mm, at 3.07g. The break is irregular, and the blade is curved. There is a round chip missing from one of the edges. 5) A small waste flake: 31.72mm, by 23.93mm, 8.25mm, at 6.08g. Roughly teardrop-shaped, with a bulb of percussion on one side. This piece is pristine, except for one side, opposite the bulb of percussion, which is lighter in colour and more worn: this may represent an earlier worked flint from which this piece was made. 6) A roughly oval waste flake, with a bulb of percussion at one end. 30.12mm, by 15.83mm, by 5.77mm, at 2.55g. 7) A small blade or waste flake shaped like an elongated teardrop, with the bulb of percussion at the rounded end. The pointed end opposite has been broken off. The dorsal face has two longitudinal facets, with two smaller preparation flake scars adjacent to the striking platform. Numbers 2, 4 and 7 are likely to be Late Upper Palaeolithic or Mesolithic in date, as they represent the Levallois technology of the time (c. 10,000 BC to 4,500 BC). 1, 3, 5 and 6 are all likely to be far more recent, dating probably to the Post-Medieval period (c. 1700-1900). It is likely therefore, that this site is a source of high-quality flint, and that a flint-workers camp was established here in the Mesolithic, and then thousands of years later a flint workshop was on the same spot, making flints for guns or the building trade. 1 may be a practice piece from the latter, and 3 is probably a finished piece.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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