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Description: | Small carved rock possibly of Palaeolithic date. Dennis Parsons (pers. comm.), the curator of geology at the Museum of Somerset, has confirmed that the decoration is indeed a carving and will not have occurred naturally. He has also advised that the stone itself is quartz within a limestone matrix - so some form of marble. However, marble of this quality is not found locally. The object is roughly sub-triangular in form, with one corner missing. Whilst one face is undecorated the other has a design engraved upon it. This is apparently abstract, but does appear to continue into the broken corner, suggesting that we do not have the complete design. The remaining design consists of a long, thin, sub-triangular recessed section extending down into one of the remaining corners, with a further recessed section, long and thin in shape and forking in half at the end, adjoining it at the other end and extending down to the edge of the longest side. The first section has three roughly parallel small grooves extending from its inner side. There are also two, very regular, indentations, which are slightly triangular in shape. One sits where the two recessed sections meet and the other sits to the side of the second section. The stone is light in colour with reddish veins running through it. It is well rounded and Dennis (pers. comm.) suggests that it has been in water at some point. This would seem to correlate with the object's findspot, on a beach. However, the design is fairly sharp and the surface of the recessed sections has a slightly coarse, pecked appearance when viewed under a hand lens. This seems to suggest that the design has been caved on an already weathered pebble. However, the broken corner does have fairly rounded sides, though they are slightly rougher than the others and it does seem likely that the break occurred after the design had been carved. Therefore it is possible that the object has undergone two periods of weathering, one before the design was carved and another when the carving had been made and the object deposited. There seem to be few British traditions of rock art that would have produced a carving like this. However, because it is a chance find with no context to tell us more, it is extremely difficult to suggest an origin or indeed a date. The style of carving does seem to bear similarities to the Paleolithic rock art of the South of France sometimes found carved on to portable objects such as antlers, pebbles and bone (see Tyldesley and Bahn 1983, particularly Appendix 1. no.35). This may suggest a very tentative similar date for this object. However, it is still difficult to comment upon its origins.Length: 64.45mm, Width: 45.36mm, Thickness: 14.92mm, Weight: 72.87g
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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