NHER 9255 (Find Spot record) - Unprovenanced Palaeolithic flint handaxes and flake (Great Melton, poorly located)

Palaeolithic flint objects known to have been recovered in Great Melton during the early-mid 20th century, but with no other information regarding provenance.

FINDS IN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Norwich Castle Museum:

This museum hold several poorly provenanced Palaeolithic flint objects from Great Melton, including 2 handaxes and at least one flake. The first handaxe was one of two donated to the museum by J. E. Sainty in 1959 (NWHCM : 1959.46). Although one is believed to have been found at the Great Melton Neolithic flint mining site (NHER 9257) the provenance of the second is less clear. Information from (S1).
Previously recorded as NHER 9256.

The second poorly-provenanced handaxe was found by A. Q. Watson at some time prior to 1953 (NWHCM : 1953.177.12) and is described by (S1) as small Group III handaxe.
Previously recorded as NHER 9254.

These handaxes are two of the three from Great Melton listed in (S2) (the third being Sainty's second handaxe - NHER 9257). Both are described by Wymer on (S3) and in (S4): Sainty's as 9.5cm long, crude and very rolled and Watson's as 9cm long and also very rolled.

According to (S1) the Norwich Castle Museum's H. H. Halls collection (NWHCM : 1924.83) includes a Palaeolithic "worked flake" from Great Melton.

On (S3) and in (S4) Wymer notes a sharp primary flake in the NCM, although it is unclear in which collection this had been found. Although an old-style accession number is given on (S3), this does not match any existing collection and was presumably written down wrong. This is possibly the unmodified flake from Great Melton listed in Roe (S2).

These objects are also listed in (S5) and (S6) although no additional information is given.

Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 11 March 2014.