Record Details
| NHER Number: | 4172 |
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| Type of record: | Find Spot |
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| Name: | Unprovenanced Mesolithic and Neolithic finds (Little Dunham, poorly located) |
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Summary
Finds recorded as being found in Little Dunham during the 18th century, but with no additional information regarding provenance. These objects include a Mesolithic tranchet axehead and a Neolithic flaked axehead with a ground edge.
Images - none
Location
Full description
Finds recorded as being found in Little Dunham during the 18th century, but with no additional information regarding provenance.
December 1824. Stray Find.
Found in Little Dunham:
1 prehistoric chipped flint axe with ground edge, tapering towards the butt-end. Dimensions 5 inches [12.5cm] x 1 3/4 inches [4.4cm]. Part of the NCM Fitch Collection (NWHCM : 1894.76.798 : A).
Information from (S1).
According to (S1) this the axehead from Little Dunham mentioned in (S2). This object is one "chipped celts" that Evans described as having "…the edge formed…by the intersection of two facets" and triangular cross-sections. Based on this description it is likely that this object is in fact a Mesolithic tranchet axehead. The object described by Evans may well be the Mesolithic tranchet axe from Little Dunham that was identified in the NCM's collections by R. Jacobi, but this is not necessary the axe in the Fitch Collection - see below.
1828. Stray Find.
The Norwich Castle Museum also holds a prehistoric axehead from Little Dunham that was donated to the Norwich Castle Museum by G. Johnson (NWHCM : 1829.136.3) and recorded as found in 1828.
There is a considerable degree of confusion regarding the nature of this object. It is recorded by both (S1) and the museum's records as a "polished axe of yellow flint, surface decomposed and white from J. Claxton's Farm, July 1828". However notes connecting this description to the axe in the NCM were added at a later date. The original description suggests that the polished axe was found in Great Dunham and in a private collection in 1831: two years after Johnson donated his axe to the NCM. It is therefore likely that the axe originally described by (S1) is a separate object - now recorded under NHER 4167 (originally NHER 4168).
A further complication is that this accession number for Johnson's axe (NWHCM : 1829.136.3) is given for a Mesolithic tranchet axehead described and figured by R. Jacobi in (S3). The same accession number is also given for this object in (S4). The recorded dimensions would appear to suggest that these are indeed the same object; one of the later notes on (S1) listing Johnson's axe as measuring 7 1/2 inches [19cm] by 2 1/4 inches [5.7cm]. The tranchet axehead examined by Jacobi is recorded in (S3) as measuring 182 x 52mm - suggesting it cannot be the object in the Fitch Collection (see above). If Johnson's object is indeed a tranchet axehead then it is likely that this is the implement from Little Dunham mentioned by Evans in (S2).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 12 August 2014.
A subsequent examination of the NCM's collections confirmed that the axe accessioned by the NCM as NWHCM : 1829.136.3 is indeed the Mesolithic tranchet axehead examined by Jacobi.
P. Watkins (HES), 26 September 2014.
Monument Types
- FINDSPOT (Mesolithic - 10000 BC to 4001 BC)
- FINDSPOT (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
Associated Finds
- TRANCHET AXEHEAD (Mesolithic - 10000 BC to 4001 BC)
- FLAKED AXEHEAD (Neolithic - 4000 BC? to 2351 BC)
Protected Status - none
Sources and further reading
| <S1> | Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Neolithic. Dunham (Little). |
| <S2> | Publication: Evans, J. 1897. The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain. 2nd Edition. p 70. |
| <S3> | Article in Monograph: Jacobi, R. 1984. The Mesolithic of Northern East Anglia and Contemporary Territories. Aspects of East Anglian Pre-History. Barringer, C. (ed.). pp 43-76. p 71. |
| <S4> | Archive: R. Jacobi. -. Jacobi Archive. 10288. |
Related records - none
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