NHER 9486 (Find Spot record) - Unprovenanced Palaeolithic flint flakes, Hethel (Bracon Ash, poorly located)

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.