NHER 60110 (Find Spot record) - Unprovenanced potentially Palaeolithic worked flints, Eaton (Norwich, poorly located)

Potentially Palaeolithic worked flints known to have been recovered in the Eaton area of Norwich during the early 20th century, but with little additional information regarding provenance.

REPORTED DISCOVERIES

Pre December 1910. Stray Find.
On 12 December 1910 H. H. Halls exhibited an implement from "Mr. E. Adcock's farm at Eaton" . This object, which Hall's believed was probably Palaeolithic, was described as "…shaped like a human foot, 8 1/2 in. from heel to toe, and 6 1/2 in. from heel to ankle…flat-backed, with bold edge chipping on the upper surface" (S1). This object is listed in (S2) and is also noted on (S3) and in (S4) .

1914. Stray Find.
On 19 October 1914 J. E. Sainty exhibited a "Palaeolithic "Drift" implement" from Eaton at a meeting of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia. This was described as "4 1/2 in. by 2 1/2 in, broken at one end, with ochreous patina" (S5). In spite of a discrepancy regarding the date of discovery this is probably the same object later described by Sainty as a "…broken specimen of late Acheulean type with curiously parallel sides…found in 1915 within the Norwich boundary at Eaton" (S6). This object is almost certainly why Eaton is listed in (S6) as one of the locations that had produced "Palaeolithic Drift" implements between 1907 and 1919 (Sainty being recorded as the finder). It is thought to be an implenent that was subsequently donated to the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 1959.47), where it is recorded as having been found near Morse's Rose Garden, north bank of Yare above Bluebell Road. Although initially recorded as a Late Acheulian flint handaxe (S8) it was later reidentified by F. Healy (S9) as a Neolithic axe roughout made on a flake.
See NHER 9372 for further details.

FINDS IN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

According to Roe (S2) the Norwich Castle Museum holds a single unprovenanced unmodified Palaeolithic flint flake from Eaton. It is unclear which collection contains this object. Although on (S3) and in (S4) Wymer notes Roe's reference to this object, it was clearly not amongst the material that he was able to locate.

There are two collections of worked flints in the Norwich Castle Museum that are recorded as holding unprovenanced material from Eaton. The first was donated by J. E. Sainty in 1927 and is recorded simply as "Palaeolithic flint implements" (NWHCM : 1927.78.1). The second group of objects is part of the T. F. Newnam Collection that the museum acquired in 1950 (NWHCM : 1950.114.3). These are also recorded simply as "Palaeolithic flint implements found at Eaton". It is not clear whether these objects were found by Newnam himself, or (like other finds in his collection) were material acquired from another collector.

P. Watkins (HES), 20 July 2014.