Find Spot record MDO83 - Schist hone found south of Barnes Lane, Alton Pancras

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1956, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1954, 98-99 (Serial). SDO54.

'A surface find made while examining a Celtic field system south of Barnes's Lane. The Schist was extremely flaky until treated with a celluloid solution at the Ministry of works through the kindness of Mr. G. C. Dunning. Both ends appear to be damaged, so the hone may have the usual hole for a thong. Schist hones in Britian are usually, if not always , medieval, and their context, where known, generally 12th century. Their distirbution, predominantly in the south and south-east, where the material does not occur naturally, favours a continental derivation, prehaps France. The hone was kindly examined at the Geological survey Musuem by Mrs.J.E. Morey, whose report is as follows :-

"The specimen is made from a friable muscovite-schist composed of elongated quartz grains and muscovite flakes (up to 0.5 mm. long). Accessory minerals are chlorite, iron ore (mostly pyrite), and occasional crystals of tourmaline, apatite, and finely granular sphene."

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 326-327 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘… 'Celtic' fields just S. of Barnes's Lane where, at 68370376, a schist hone was also found (Dorset Procs., 76 (1954), 76, 98–9.)’

Record last edited

Apr 5 2019 5:02PM