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Description: | Fragment of a large chert knife, trapezoidal in plan and section, and rhomboidal in profile. The dorsal face has been unifacially retouched around the squared-off proximal end and down each margin, creating a serrated edge on each side. Flakes have been taken off the top of the dorsal face to flatten the medial ridge, which has left two concave areas in the middle section. The fragment is not broken at both ends but has snapped across the distal side. The proximal end has a tranverse flake which has been taken off at the point of percussion, leaving the bulb of percussion beyond it intact. The bulb of percussion is large, which indicates that the person who made it must have hit the original core with some force to remove the flake.The chert is probably local Greensand chert but is orange and not the more common local 'biscuit' colour. The size of the piece is possibly too large to have been made of Greensand chert from a local beach pebble but the colour, grain-size and type is quite commonly found in assemblages of Cornish material. It may also have been brought into the area from further afield as this colour is also common in east Devon and Dorset. It appears to be a coarsely worked, broken scraper or knife, but it is difficult to tell which of those implements without the distal end. Mesolithic people seem to have used Greensand chert in Cornwall more frequently than it was used in the Neolithic and Bronze Age so I speculate that it is Mesolithic in age. However, tools made from Greensand chert are often bigger and of non-standard type and this piece fits that pattern. So, the tool typology does not classify or date it (Rosemary Stewart pers comm).Bond (2004) illustrates a similarly truncated blade on page 109, Fig.5.93, No.172, and a large blade with a serrated edge on page112, Fig.5.96, No.20, which are both dated from the Mesolithic period.Butler (2005) illustrates a similar blade truncated at a right angle on page 111, Fig.44, No.16, and a segment of a large knife on page 115, Fig.46, No.7, which are both dated from the Mesolithic period.
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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