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  • More Broken Dreams

    My searches recently have turned up some more shattered axes and I am just left wondering what beauty has been lost. The first one is not down to the plough or rollers, but that vandal of ancient flint tools: 'Jack Frost'
    The tip of this axe was buried deep in a trench, well below the plough layer and has a mint fresh edge. The tip and reverse face have suffered from extensive frost shattering and the pieces removed appear to be very small. I didn't see any obvious debris from the tip in the hole, so it appears that between the time the artefact was subject to frost damage and the place of deposition there has been some parting of the two (main axe and fragments).

    The second piece is one that has been shattered by the digger (digging footings) and the soil removed from site. So no hope of ever finding the rest. You can see the edge in the second picture

  • #2
    It's a shame Sunny but they're artifacts none-the-less. You can definitely see the flaking on both pieces. One doesn't often think about freezing damaging artifacts but it happens. Like you said, sometimes you can find the fragments and piece it back together but more often that's not the case. Thanks for sharing with us. ...Chuck
    Pickett/Fentress County, Tn - Any day on this side of the grass is a good day. -Chuck-

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    • #3
      Yeah I agree that they are definitely worked pieces. The first one is made from my my old friend Burlington Chert as that is about 90% of my finds here. The second is a cool orange color that possibly might have had heat treatment...not sure...that's one for the knappers. As far as broken axes that material was not favorable for axe/celt material but they were absolutely worked and used at some point...no mistaking those reduction marks...nice finds that I would have kept as well...
      The chase is better than the catch...
      I'm Frank and I'm from the flatlands of N'Eastern Illinois...

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      • #4
        Originally posted by BabaORiley View Post
        Yeah I agree that they are definitely worked pieces. The first one is made from my my old friend Burlington Chert as that is about 90% of my finds here. The second is a cool orange color that possibly might have had heat treatment...not sure...that's one for the knappers. As far as broken axes that material was not favorable for axe/celt material but they were absolutely worked and used at some point...no mistaking those reduction marks...nice finds that I would have kept as well...
        Sunny is posting from the UK, so that's a loooong way from exposures of Burlington!

        It's probably going to be Hampshire Basin material... perhaps Hythe Formation/Lower Greensand chert. The brown example is iron-stained rather than heat-treated.

        Broke or not, they all count... even if only as study pieces.
        I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

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        • #5
          Well that rules my thoughts out Pains...had no idea that chap Sunny was located across the pond. The white material is a dead ringer for the chert I find though...well missed that one by a few thousand miles...
          The chase is better than the catch...
          I'm Frank and I'm from the flatlands of N'Eastern Illinois...

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          • #6
            Sorry guys, bit more information on the artefacts. They are likely to be Middle Palaeolithic in age and were found in the southern area of Hampshire (England). Both are local flint (from the Upper Chalk; which is Cretaceous).
            The difference in patination is to do with respective age, surface exposure and cycles of ice age of soil erosion & disposition. They were both found in the brickearth (clay deposit layer) overlaying the chalk bedrock. This area has seen numerous periods of glacial erosion and post-glacial soil accumulation. Clearly one or more of those phases involved a soil that was rich in iron oxide which has fixed in the surface of the flint to turn it that lovely brown hue.

            I think the one that is white patination was exposed to a long period on the surface, during which it suffered from frost fracturing. This would have been during a period of glaciation.

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