Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
Flint scatters on Baggy Point Analysis of a field-walking exercise - Ann and Martin Plummer Newsletter No 4 2002)
Excavations of prehistoric sites are comparatively rare in North Devon and the Exmoor area in general. Most prehistoric evidence is, therefore, recovered through field-walking, as is apparent in the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register.
Whilst assessing all the lithic assemblages held at the North Devon Museum
in Barnstaple, our attention was drawn to the collection resulting from
a field walking exercise carried out by the North Devon Archaeological
Society on Baggy Point in 1992 under the guidance of Alison Mills.
The significant advantage of an organised exercise is that a gridded map is created, thereby locating the finds and providing a secure provenance for any important artefact.
The field selected, numbered 2857 (OS Grid Reference 425 405), lies at the western end of Baggy Point, a small peninsula between Morte Bay and Croyde Bay. Outside the boundary walls on the north-west and south-west sides of the field runs a cart track. The field slopes approximately sixteen metres from the south-west to the east and has a small level area in the south-west corner.
The peninsula is divided geologically between Baggy Sandstone
on the southern side and Upcott slate on the north.(Edmunds, Williams
& Taylor 1979, Fig 2). Flint and chert do not naturally occur here,
but are to be found in water-borne pebble form on beaches in the locality.
Other sources of material include clay-with-flints at Orleigh Court near
Bideford and chert sources in the Blackdown Hills. It should be remembered
that the sea level was much lower in the Mesolithic and that the Bristol
Channel was a
plain (Green & Walker 1991, P10).
The material from this exercise has already been recorded in an unpublished paper by Anthony Gist. Gist’s approach was statisticalanalytic, using the Kilmogotov-Smurnoc test based on quantity, weight, size and colour. From this analysis he deduced that the majority of the material collected was from the Mesolithic period. Our preliminary assessment of the collection is based only on the flint and chert artefacts, the majority of which are of pebble flint.
Two primary aspects are considered: (a) debitage, ie. the waste remaining from the knapping of the flint; and (b) tools, which represent the social and domestic activities which took place on the site. The 2526 pieces collected have been studied typologically. Of the total, 2204 items represent debitage, 94 are tools, while un-worked (whole and broken) pebbles account for 226.
Knapping produces considerable numbers of flakes that are not suitable for the production of tools, and therefore there is always a large quantity of waste. However, the production of blades is determined by the use to which they are to be put. In other words, blades are generally manufactured. To create a blade from a core you first have to suitably prepare the core. This can be done by a technique called “cresting” (Lord 1993, 52) characteristic of the “blade culture” attributed to the Mesolithic. As a blade core is worked down, more waste flakes are produced as a result of the “reshaping” of the core to enable further blades to be produced, resulting in an imbalance of blade debitage against flake debitage. The debitage collected included 320 blades,681 flakes and 968 fragments. Of the fragments, 16 have been identified as microburins, an important indicator of Mesolithic activity. Not all of the 235 cores collected have yet been clearly diagnosed. Of the 97 that have been thoroughly examined, 87 are predominantly blade cores and 10 have been found to be flake cores.
The tools comprise 42 scrapers, 12 awls, (including borers, piercers, gravers), 10 microliths, 3 notched blades, 2 choppers, 2 leaf points and 1 knife. The character of both the debitage and the tools as well as the knapping technique employed clearly indicate the Mesolithic period. Microliths and microburins are also typological indicators. Evidence for domestic activity for the period is supported by the choppers, scrapers produced on blades, together with piercers and borers.
The typology indicates occupation during both the early and late Mesolithic period (ie. c.7,000 - 4,000 BC). The early period is represented by microliths having obliquely blunted points (Barton 1992, 248). The later period indicator is a “Rod” type microlith (Saville 1981, 111).
Evidence of occupation during the Neolithicperiod is
more tenuous. Of the leaf shaped points attributed to the Neolithic, only
two are present in the collection. One specimen is complete and one is
just a fragment. Another indicator for this
period is edge trimmed flakes some of which have clearly been produced
as scrapers.
Field-walking exercises can produce interesting results both from the
artefacts found and from studying their landscape context. The scatter
plans Figures 2-5 reveal that most of the activity took place in the south-west
corner of the area walked where a level platform exists. On the surrounding
slopes, the artefacts decline in number. The concentration of debitage
along the south-west boundary of the field would suggest that here there
was shelter from the prevailing wind. The core scatter plan confirms this
interpretation. On the other hand, the largest concentration of tools
lies at the periphery of this area to the north. The concentrations of
debitage and cores indicate a knapping area, whilst the presence of borers,
scrapers, etc. could indicate domestic activity in the area.
In the modern landscape a boundary wallalong the south-west and north-west
sides of the field has mostly likely protected the site. The cart track,
which follows the line of the boundary wall, will most probably have destroyed
most of the prehistoric evidence.
As the possibility of an excavation being carried out in the near (or
distant) future is negligible the benefit of an organised and gridded
field-walk can be seen as indispensable for identifying archaeological
sites.
References:
Barton R.N.E 1992:
Hengistbury Head, Dorset. Vol.2: The Later Upper Paleolithic and Early
Mesolithic Sites, Oxford
University Committee for Archaeology Monograph No. 34
Edmunds E.A.,Williams B.J. & Taylor R.T. 1997:
Geology of Bideford and Lundy Island . Institute of Geological Sciences
HMSO
Green S. & Walker E 1991: Ice Age Hunters, National Museum of Wales
Lord W.J.1993: The Nature and Subsequent Uses of Flint publ. John Lord
Saville A. 1981: The Flint and Chert artefacts, in Mercer R.J: Excavations at Carn Brea, Illogan, Cornwall 1970-1973: A Neolithic Fortified Complex at the Third Millennium BC, Cornish Archaeology No.20