Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Monday, 18 April 2011

Is it? or isn't it?

Is there an archaeologist in the house?

Is it or isn't it a flint tool?


When I'm working in the vegetable garden I often pick up pieces of flint (the soil is full of them!) and wonder if it's just a broken stone or a flake of flint worked by someone thousands of years ago?

I picked up this one while I was planting potatoes the other evening – and found it in the pocket of my trousers today!



Does anyone know an expert who can tell?
I'd love to know.

Thank you
Celia
x


PS: Here's the reverse and a 50p coin for scale:


Posted by Celia Hart on Monday, April 18, 2011

22 comments:

  1. silverpebble18 April 2011 at 17:32

    My neighbour called on an archaeologist recently to look at some flint pieces in his garden. It was confirmed as a Bronze Age flint working site. Those flakes have been so neatly napped off. It has to be!

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  2. Lois Mansfield18 April 2011 at 17:42

    My OH is an archaeologist and says "always a bit hard to tell from a photo alone but looks pretty convincing- almost certainly a flake with retouch around the top to make a scraper. Does the other side look like it's been struck as well?"

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  3. Unknown18 April 2011 at 17:56

    Based on my previous experience in Paleolithic archaeology (though it's about 8 years since I last studied flints in detail) I'd second Jet_fusion's OH.

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  4. Celia Hart18 April 2011 at 17:59

    Hi Emma - it does look neat doesn't it!

    Hi Jet_fusion - I've added another photo of the reverse side and a 50p coin for scale. I'm getting excited now! But I suppose they're all over the shop in Suffolk!

    Celia

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  5. dottycookie18 April 2011 at 18:58

    It does look worked, but then what would I know?!

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  6. dinahmow18 April 2011 at 20:20

    Oo-arr! Reck'n you'd best arrsk ol' Phil with that feather'n 'is 'at...

    Yes, as you say, East Anglia still pitches up all sorts of goodies. Keep weedin' them cabbages!

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  7. John18 April 2011 at 20:20

    It's got to be Celia... too neatly chipped around the edges for chance.

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  8. Claire18 April 2011 at 23:30

    Hey Celia,how exciting to dig up something more interesting than weeds and spuds.......

    Hard to get your head around it could be a tool used by someone thousands of years ago.

    Claire :}

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  9. Unknown19 April 2011 at 00:10

    Is it a slug?

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  10. A Deegan19 April 2011 at 08:05

    amazing to think of this pressed between thumb and finger thousands of years ago. and don't us archaeologists just get everywhere!

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  11. do you mind if i knit19 April 2011 at 09:44

    It looks so ergonomic doesn't it? Little spaces for the fingers to fit, have you tried working with it yourself? Very exciting that piece of flint! Love Vanessa xxx

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  12. Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes19 April 2011 at 14:42

    Sorry, I can't help . . . but it looks interesting!

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  13. Wendy19 April 2011 at 15:23

    I think I'd be using that myself - it looks a very useful object! What a glorious thing to find. I mainly dig up car parts here...

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  14. Anonymous19 April 2011 at 15:55

    I wish I could dig up something so interesting. I'm like Wendy, it's usually old tractor bits though I did get some cow bones once - gave me a bit of shock!

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  15. Chrissie19 April 2011 at 16:29

    ooharrrh - I think we Time Team experts can state categorically that it is napped flint! My best finds in the veg patch are bits of old pipe stem.

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  16. Anonymous19 April 2011 at 18:57

    It definitely looks knapped and therefore made to be used as a tool, what an exciting thing to find.

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  17. Matron20 April 2011 at 09:26

    Looks like it to me, the untrained but interested amateur. Those chips off the cutting edge look to have been done deliberately rather than by accident!

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  18. Janet/Plantaliscious20 April 2011 at 21:21

    What a wonderful find!

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  19. Anonymous21 April 2011 at 00:18

    I'm an archaeologist in the New World, but I know a knapped flint when I see it! how cool!

    on the back view, the part at the bottom where it bulges out is where someone hit it with another rock to break it off. the curving lines radiating from there are a result of the force.

    I wish I found things like that in my garden in the US!

    I love your art, by the way! I found you from here:
    http://theanimalarium.blogspot.com/2011/04/sunday-safari-spring-siesta.html

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  20. Fiona22 April 2011 at 19:00

    I have spent all my life trying to find flint tools. So I'd be prepared to say yes, just because I like the romance of it. And it sounds as if a few more educated people think so too.

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  21. Kath22 April 2011 at 19:29

    Yep. Got my Certificate in Archaeology 10 years back but it's a worked flint for sure. Conchoidal fracture (like a shell)Bulb of percussion and touched up edges. You lucky madam!

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  22. Daisy Debs2 March 2012 at 21:18

    Love it ! Its the thought of finding things like this that keeps me happily weeding away in my Cornish garden . : )

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