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Description: | Small volcanic greenstone cobble, sub-square in plan and section and rhomboidal in profile, with rounded facets and flat parallel surfaces, probably used as a hammerstone and sourced in the Mounts Bay area of Cornwall. The hammerstone is of a convenient size to be held in the hand. Such pieces do turn up on domestic sites but not in any quantity compared to mullers and rubbers. On these objects the waterworn cobble surfaces are all fresh and unweathered, appropriate for selection from a beach during the Neolithic. The beach selection would ensure hard enduring pieces. It is quite possible that the wear on these objects has been caused by grinding pieces in the axe manufacture process. (Henrietta Quinnell, Clodgy Moor stonework, forthcoming).Examples of hammerstones have been found on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Cornwall, such as Stannon Down, St Breward, illustrated in Jones (2008) on page 91, Fig.31, No.20, Scarcewater, St Stephens, illustrated in Jones and Taylor (2010) on page 122, Fig.60, No.226, and Callestick, Perranzabuloe, illustrated in Jones (2002) on page 32, Fig.13, No.87.
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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