NHER 1304 (Find Spot record) - Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic worked flints

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Summary

During the 1960s a Mesolithic flint axehead and a Neolithic part-polished flint axehead were found on this part of Thornham beach. Subsequently fieldwalking between 1979 and 1989 recovered a small assemblage of worked flints around the High Water Mark. These flints included Late Upper Palaeolithic blades, flakes, cores and implements; an Early Neolithic leaf arrowhead; a Neolithic part-polished axehead and a number of other potentially Neolithic pieces. The Late Upper Palaeolithic flints are all stained black and are almost certainly part of the similarly-stained Late Upper Palaeolithic long blade industry that was recovered from the beach at Titchwell, immediately to the east (NHER 15352).

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Location

Map sheet TF74NW
Civil Parish THORNHAM, WEST NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Map

August 1960. Stray Find.
Found by son of [1] in area of "submerged forest at Thornham" (Context 3):
1 Mesolithic flint tranchet axehead. Donated to King’s Lynn Museum (KILLM : 1961.21).
Information from (S1). This discovery was reported in (S7).
Although initially recorded as Neolithic, this object was subsequently identified as Mesolithic by R. Jacobi. See description in (S2) and copy of drawing by Jacobi (S3). From correspondence between [1] and Jacobi (British Museum Wymer Archive) it is clear that this object was found in clay beneath the upper peat deposits, around the Low Water Mark. It should be noted that a plan supplied by the finder suggests that the axehead may have actually been found to the north-east of the location recorded by the NCM, around TF 7505 4530.
See copies of plan and relevant correspondence in file.
Previously recorded as NHER 1303.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 22 December 2013.

1969. Stray Find.
Found on shingle by [2] at TF 7425 4515 (Context 2):
1 Neolithic part-polished flint axehead (water-worn) and scrapers.
Information from (S1)
Amended by P. Watkins (HES).

July 1979-January 1989.
Various worked flints recovered during multiple visits by [3] and [4] (the majority by the former):
26 Late Upper Palaeolithic flint blades, 7 flakes, 2 crested flakes, 3 cores, 1 burin, 1 end scraper and 1 backed blade (?Cresswell/’penknife’ point). See drawings (S4) and (S5). Two of the cores are listed in a catalogue of long blade cores compiled by N. Barton (see copy in file - from British Museum Wymer Archive).

1 Early Neolithic lead arrowhead.
1 Neolithic part-polished flint axehead.
4 ?Neolithic flint blades, 1 scraper and 1 strike-a-light.

34 flints were donated to King’s Lynn Museum (KILLM : 1986.15.3).
Identified by J. J. Wymer (NAU) and P. Robins (NCM), see initial lists and analysis sheets in file. A digital version of these catalogues has been created and used to generate a GIS plot of the recorded findspots. The mapped extent of this record was subsequently corrected to better reflect the recorded distribution of this assemblage.

The Late Upper Palaeolithic flints are all stained black and are almost certainly the tail end of a Late Upper Palaeolithic long blade industry that was recovered from the beach at Titchwell, immediately to the east (NHER 15352). The source of this material was traced to deposits that lay below the Low Water Mark, where flints were found in situ on the surface of a glacial till, beneath a sequence of peats and silty clays (NHER 22810). See NHER 15352 and (S6) for further details.
E. Rose (NAU), 21 November 1988. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 7 November 2014.

  • --- Collection: Norfolk Historic Environment Record Staff. 1975-[2000]. HER Record Notes. Norfolk Historic Environment Service.
  • --- Map: Finder's Map.
  • --- Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card. NHERs 1303-1304.
  • --- Secondary File: Secondary File.
  • <S1> Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Neolithic. Thornham [2].
  • <S2> Archive: R. Jacobi. -. Jacobi Archive. 10382.
  • <S3> Illustration: Jacobi, R. Drawing of a Mesolithic flint tranchet axehead from Thornham. Paper. 1:1.
  • <S4> Illustration: [Unknown]. 1982. Drawing of nine Late Upper Palaeolithic flint blades from Thornham (G. Drown's finds). Paper. 1:1.
  • <S5> Illustration: [Unknown]. 1982. Drawing of Late Upper Palaeolithic flint flakes, blade and crested flake from Thornham (T. Sharman's finds). Paper. 1:1.
  • <S6> Article in Serial: Wymer, J. J. and Robins, P. A. 1994. A Long Blade Industry beneath Boreal peat at Titchwell, Norfolk. Norfolk Archaeology. Vol XLII Pt I pp 13-37.
  • <S7> Serial: 1960. Council for British Archaeology Group 7 Bulletin of Archaeological Discoveries for 1960. No 7. p 5.
  • BLADE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • BLADE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • BLADE CORE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • BURIN (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • CORE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • CORE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • CRESTED BLADE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • END SCRAPER (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • FLAKE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • FLAKE (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • POINT (Upper Palaeolithic - 40000 BC to 10001 BC)
  • TRANCHET AXEHEAD (Mesolithic - 10000 BC to 4001 BC)
  • BLADE (Neolithic - 4000 BC? to 2351 BC?)
  • BLADE (Neolithic - 4000 BC? to 2351 BC?)
  • LEAF ARROWHEAD (Early Neolithic - 4000 BC to 3001 BC)
  • POLISHED AXEHEAD (Early Neolithic - 4000 BC to 3001 BC)
  • POLISHED AXEHEAD (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
  • SCRAPER (TOOL) (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
  • SCRAPER (TOOL) (Neolithic - 4000 BC? to 2351 BC?)
  • STRIKE A LIGHT (Neolithic - 4000 BC? to 2351 BC?)

Record last edited

Jul 21 2018 11:07AM

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