Record Details

NHER Number:9486
Type of record:Find Spot
Name:Unprovenanced Palaeolithic flint flakes, Hethel (Bracon Ash, poorly located)

Summary

The Norwich Castle Museum holds two Palaeolithic flint flakes (one with retouch) that were found at unrecorded locations in the Hethel area during the early 20th century.

Images - none

Location

Parish:BRACON ASH, SOUTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

Pre 1926. Stray Find.
According to (S1) the Norwich Castle Museum holds two unprovenanced Palaeolithic flint flakes, one with retouch, that were found in the Hethel area (now part of Bracon Ash parish).
Information from (S2).

These two objects were identified by J. J. Wymer as:
1 rolled stained flake in the NCM's H. H. Halls collection (NWHCM : 1924.83).
1 ?fragment of slightly rolled and stained worked flake in the NCM's W. G. Clarke collection (NWHCM : 1926.32).
Information from (S3).

It is reasonably likely that these finds are the same as two prehistoric objects detailed by (S4) and previously recorded under NHER 9485:
1 "sub-crag type of scraper" in Hall collection (NWHCM : 1924.83.47).
1 "fragment of chipped flint" in W. G. Clarke collection (NWHCM : 1926.32.67). Erroneously recorded in the NCM's records as a chipped axe fragment.

The 'scraper' is possibly the reason that Hethel is listed in (S5) as a location at which Halls had recovered "Palaeolithic drift" material. It may well have been a surface find as in 1913 Clarke refered to "undoubted 'drift' implements on the surface…" at Hethel (S6). These points are made by Wymer in (S7), although it would appear that something has become confused somewhere along the line as Wymer explicitly links his description of an object with secondary working in the W. G. Clarke collection with these references to an object found by Halls.

The NCM also holds a number of worked flints that were recovered at another site in the Hethel area by Halls around the same time (his Site 19; NWHCM : 1924.83.19). One of the flakes in this collection was identified as potentially Palaeolithic by P. Robins (NCM). See NHER 9487 for information on the other finds from this site.

Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 20 February 2014.

Monument Types

  • FINDSPOT (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 1000000 BC to 40001 BC)

Associated Finds

  • FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
  • FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC? to 40001 BC?)
  • RETOUCHED FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
  • SCRAPER (TOOL)? (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC? to 40001 BC?)

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card. NHERs 9485-9486.
<S1>Monograph: Roe, D. A. 1968. A Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Sites. CBA Research Report. No 8.
<S2>Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Palaeolithic.
<S3>Record Card: Wymer, J. J. Wymer Index Card - Palaeolithic. Bracon Ash (Hethel).
<S4>Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Miscellaneous Prehistoric.
<S5>Article in Serial: Clarke, W. G. 1919. The Distribution of Flint and Bronze Implements in Norfolk. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia. Vol III Pt I (for 1918-19) pp 147-149. p 148.
<S6>Article in Serial: Clarke, W. G. 1913. Norfolk Implements of Palaeolithic "Cave" Types. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia. Vol I Pt III (for 1912-13) pp 338-345.
<S7>Publication: Wymer, J. J. 1985. Palaeolithic Sites of East Anglia. p 69.

Related records - none

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