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Description: | A crude pick, knapped from high-quality black flint. The artefact is of the type known as a ?Thames pick?. The flint is dark and has large patches of light grey, caused by aberrant seams in the parent nodule. A small area of outer cortex remains near one end. The artefact is fairly long and narrow with a diamond-shaped cross-section. There are two crude sharp ends, in the manner of rounded chisel-blades. The piece is slightly curved in its length. The flake scars are large and crude; in the ?inside facet? of this slightly curving tool. The two edges have been roughly reduced, with a large number of small flakes awkwardly removed by pounding to blunt these edges- possibly to enable the tool to be held without cutting the user?s hand. Alternatively, the tool might have been hafted, and this reduction of the edges, resulting in a slight hollow, would have been a useful position for the haft. No attempt has been made to neaten the appearance of the tool, beyond the minimum requirements for making it safe to hold. Both ends have multiple small negative scars, most likely resulting from repeated impacts with the material it was used to carve. Various scars further back from the cutting edges suggest that the tool may possibly have been re-sharpened by removing large flakes. The surface of the piece is unworn and there does not appear to be any later damage.
This artefact is clearly a quickly-made tool, with two ends so that it could still be used when one was blunt, much in the manner of a modern two-headed axe. The rough nature of the tool suggests that it was used for cutting into stone, or some other similarly hard medium since woodworking would never require such a crude edge. Alternatively, if hafted, it may have been used for felling trees. The tool dates from the Mesolithic. (identification by Dr. Andrew Woodcock and Greg Chuter). | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | -8300
-3500 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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