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THOUGHTS ON MASSIVE FLINT CORES FROM WILTSHIRE AND EAST ANGLIA, THE MOVEMENT OF FLINT AND ITS ROLE IN LATE NEOLITHIC BRITAIN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2017

Phil Harding  and
John Lord
Phil Harding
Affiliation:
Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP4 6EB. Email: p.harding@wessexarch.co.uk
John Lord
Affiliation:
The Old Mill House, Chalk Row Road, Gooderstone, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE33 9BW.
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Abstract

This paper describes the discovery of a massive, fan-shaped flint core from West Kennett Farm, near Avebury in Wiltshire, a site that is noted for two Late Neolithic palisaded enclosures. The discovery of the core has renewed focus on three similar artefacts from East Anglia, the importance of which has been overlooked. These cores arguably constitute some of the largest individual pieces of systematically worked flint from Britain. The paper considers the implications of the discovery at West Kennett Farm, where nodules of this size are absent, with the movement of flint across Britain, and concludes by discussing the role of these ‘mega-cores’ with current thinking on the function of stone in Neolithic Britain.

Type
Papers
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 97 , September 2017 , pp. 49 - 63
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London 2017 

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