Find Spot record MDO25766 - Chert core from Pilsdon

A chert core found at Pilsdon and described as being roughly tabular in shape. Along its one long convex face, long narrow flakes have been detached from a striking platform, now broken off, at the butt end. The precise location of this find is not known. The find is described as being from Pilsdon, possilby the Iron Age hillfort at Pilsdon Pen, but this may refer to the parish of Pilsdon.

A chert core found at Pilsdon (SY 4199) was sent to Dorset County Museum by J C Osborne of St Francis School Hooke, for identification. It measured 11 1/2 inches long by 4 1/4 inches maximum width and had one convex long face from which flakes had been detached. It probably originated from the Upper Cretaceous strata forming
the capping of Pilsdon Pen hill. <1>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1957, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1956, 89 (Serial). SDO56.

'A chert core found at Pilsdon was sent to the Museum by Mr. J. C. Osborne of St. Francis School, Hooke, for identification. The core is now 11 and a half inches long and 4 and a quarter inches wide (maximum) and is roughly tabular, but has one convex long face from which long narrow flakes have been detached from a striking platform, now broken off, at the butt end. Mr. P. J. Adams, of the Geological Survey, reports that the stone was probably "derived from the Upper Cretaceous strata which form the capping to the hill. Isolated areas, or 'outliers', of Gault and Upper Greensand also form such conspicuous features as Leweston Hill and Hardown Hill. In these western outcrops of the Upper Greensand formation the higher beds are characterised by the development of chert as scattered concretions and in regular courses. The flaked surface of the chert would appear to be of mechanical origin either by natural abrasion or by human agency.'

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450039 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 16 2022 12:42PM