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Pitt Rivers Museum

1884.125.20

Stone core; fire cracked


1884.125.20

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Stone core; fire cracked
Long description
Fire cracked core (?) of flint with dark and light grey patina covering all surfaces. [CG [Excav. PR] 02/09/2013]
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Neolithic
Date collected
1871
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Flint Stone, Process Flaked, Process Fire-Hardened
Dimensions
Thick: max 31 mm, Width: max 54 mm, Length: max 61 mm, Weight 129 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.125.20
Research and responses

There is confusion over the location of this site. It is most likely that references to Wallbury/Warlbury/Worlebury in the primary documentation refer to [England West Berkshire Combe Walbury Camp]. However, it is also possible that this site is [England North Somerset Weston-super-Mare Worlebury Worlebury Camp Hillfort], or even [England Essex Uttlesford Little Hallingbury Wallbury Camp]. Pitt-Rivers referred to the discovery of 'deposits of grain' 'at Worlebury, near Weston-super-Mare' in his 1881 paper on Mount Caburn (p.451). This might support the interpretation that the Wallbury/Warlbury/Worlebury records relate to this site - see Pitt-Rivers, A.H.L.F. 1881. Excavations at Mount Caburn camp near Lewes, conducted in 1877 and 1878. Archaeologia 46: 423-495. However, for now the primary documentation in the Blue Book - "near Stockbridge" - means that the Berkshire site is the most probable. [Dan Hicks 13/11/2013]

Location of Worlbury Camp unclear at present, Bowden does not mention it or any archaeological activity in 1871 by Pitt Rivers and neither does Thompson. There is a Worlebury Camp [Iron Age hillfort] in Somerset near Weston-super-Mare which is obviously where the compiler of the Museum's catalogue cards thought this object was from (though they still spelt it incorrectly]. See http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=4976. There is also another Iron Age fort at Walbury Hill which is near to Combe, west of Highclere in Berkshire (near Inkpen), this is presumably the one that the blue book is referring to [it is north of Stockbridge in Hampshire). See http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=4529 I think the former is probably correct but cannot be sure. The journal reference is to Worlebury near Weston-super-Mare [AP 21/08/2006]

Another option is that given for 3 other entries of Warlbury on Cranborne Chase [which cannot be confirmed by map] search for warlbury in region field to find all relevant entries [AP 5/9/2007]

Taking the confusion of the location of this site, it may be that "Dymond, C.W. and Tomkins, H.G. 1886. Worlebury: an ancient stronghold in the county of Somerset. Bristol: Wright and Co." has some relevance. [CB 8/12/2009]

Search terms: Tool, Food and Drink, Fire, Core, Cooking Tool, Food Accessory