NHER 1382 (Find Spot record) - Unprovenanced Upper Palaeolithic worked flints, beach/foreshore (Brancaster, poorly located)

Upper Palaeolithic worked flints known to have been found on the beach or foreshore at Brancaster, but with little additional information regarding provenance.

1931. Stray Find.
Found on the foreshore at low water by Lieutenant Colonel Meade-Waldo:
1 prehistoric large two-platform blade core. Information from (S1). This object was described and illustrated by J. Reid Moir (S2), who compared it to "scraper-cores" that had been found at Les Eyzies in the Dordogne. He suggested this term due to the removal of number of flakes on one side of the core, perpendicular to the main flaking direction along its length (although he was sceptical that these represented an attempt to make a scraper, rather than simply associated with its primary function as a core). It is noted that the piece exhibits a peculiar yellowish mahogany patination, such as that known to occur on object recovered in peaty deposits. Reid Moir felt that the core was probably derived from the "alluvium with a 'submerged forest' seen…overlying the Brown Boulder Clay at low water in Brancaster Bay". It is however noted subsequently in (S3) that it may have been "derived from the Brown Boulder Clay". This object is also mentioned in (S4).

The core is now held by the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 1954.90) and although it is listed in (S5), it is actually Late Upper Palaeolithic, being listed as such in (S6). See (S7) for detailed description. This object is also listed in a catalogue compiled by N. Barton (Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre, Oxford); see copy in file (from British Museum Wymer Archive).
E. Rose (NLA). Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 13 December 2013.

1996. Stray Find.
Found by [1] on Brancaster Beach:
1 Upper Palaeolithic flint burin, made on long blade.
This object was identified by A. Roberts (British Museum) and subsequently donated to the King's Lynn Museum (KILLM : 1997.56).
Information from museum records.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 August 2014.