Find Spot record MDO4637 - Old Brow, Shaftesbury: flint flakes, possibly Mesolithic

A number of flint flakes were found during ground levelling in 1947. One was identified as possibly being part of a flake from which gun flints had been struck. The others may have been flakes from a microlithic industry.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1951, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1950, 94 (Serial). SDO50.

'Some possible microlithic flints from Old Brow, Shaftesbury ; nat. grid ST(31)/857228. A number of small flint flakes, now in the Shaftesbury Museum, were found in 1947 on the surface at Old Brow House, a site which lies on the Greensand, during levelling operations mentioned in Vol. 71, p. 54. None were found on the adjacent Castle Hill site. Seven of these flints were submitted by the writer to Dr. Grahame Clark. One of them, in Dr. Clark's opinion, looked like "one end of a broad flake from which gun-flints or strike-a-lights have been taken …". Of the remainder Dr. Clarke reports : "Three or four of the smller pieces could be primary flakes of a microlithic industry, but I would not venture to identify a microlithic site on this basis alone. The larger flake has been blunted on one edge and also at one end as though for mounting with other flakes [as a reaper]. It shows no diffuse lustre".'

Record last edited

Jul 1 2015 11:52AM