- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Stone flake
- Long description
- Flake of flint ith light to mid grey patina covering all surfaces. [CC [Excav. PR] 04/09/2013]
- Geographical reference
- England Norfolk Breckland Weeting-with-Broomhill Grimes Graves "surface"
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector William Greenwell
- Field collector Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers
- PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
- Date / Period
- Archaeological period: Mesolithic, uncertain Archaeological period: Neolithic, uncertain
- Date collected
- 1868 Aug
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1884
- Dimensions
- Thick: max 13 mm, Width: max 39 mm, Length: max 72 mm, Weight 32 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1884.123.240 PR Cat other PR nos: ?2255
- Research and responses
Grimes Graves: Neolithic flint mines near Brandon on the Norfolk Suffolk border. ... there are the remains of 346 mine shafts ... [W Bray and D Trump, Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology, 1982 :101] [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]
Note that Pitt Rivers was at Grimes Graves as a visitor in 1868, Canon Greenwell found antler picks on that site in the same year [AP 02/09/2008]
Grimes Graves [TL 8177 8976] is a later Neolithic flint mining complex in the parish of Weeting with Broomhill, Breckland district of Norfolk. The site covers approx. 6 hectares [14.83 acres] and at least 443 shafts are thought to survive. The first recorded investigations at the site occurred in the 1850s. Between 1868 and 1870 Cannon William Greenwell, a friend of Pitt Rivers, excavated the site. It is possible that the Pitt Rivers founding collection objects were obtained from Greenwell's excavation. Greenwell published the results of his excavations in 1870. The article can be accessed online through JSTOR, see http://www.jstor.org/stable/3014374. Full reference: Greenwell, W. 1870. On the Opening of Grime's Graves in Norfolk. The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London Vol. 2, No. 4: pp. 419-439. [MN 22/06/2009]
Grimes Graves is recorded on the English Heritage maintained National Monuments Record under monument no. 382869. This record can be accessed online, see http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=382869. [MN 22/06/2009]
The site is recorded on the Norfolk Historic Environment Record under NHER no. 5640. This record can be accessed online at http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. [MN 22/06/2009]
There are numerous publications relating to excavation at Grimes' Graves, those listed below simply the most pertinent to items in the PRM. Canon Greenwell excavated 1868-70, and published his results in 1870 in The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London 4 : 419-439. Major excavations were undertaken by the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia between 1919-1939 with AE Peake and later AL Armstrong directing and with many members taking part or visiting the site. All the following papers were published in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia: HGO Kendall, vol. 3:104- 108, 192- 199, 290- 305; AE Peake, vol. 3: 73-93; D Richardson, vol. 3: 243- 258; WG Clarke, vol. 3: 431- 433; AL Armstrong, vol. 3: 434- 443, 548- 558 vol. 4: 113-125, 182- 202 vol. 5: 91- 136 [CB 8/12/2009]
Further items to explore
1884.119.291Tool or weapon handle.1884.119.291
1935.46.14.35Animal bone fragment. [RH [OPS Move] 18/5/2017]1935.46.14.35
1884.138.8.264Ceramic sherd1884.138.8.264
1932.88.261.1Hanging lamp comprising two parts. The lamp has a cylindrical body with rounded bottom and two curved spouts projecting from opposite sides of the body. Slightly domed lid with flat rim sits within the body and has a central circular handle. The lamp sits within a stand [1932.88.261 .2]. [MOBB [OPS move] 10/5/2017]1932.88.261.1