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1921.91.405.52

Flint flake, dark brown in colour and irregular shaped. [MJD DDF Body Arts Project 2010/2011 08/02/2011]

1921.91.405.52

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Collection type
Object
Description
Flint flake, dark brown in colour and irregular shaped. [MJD DDF Body Arts Project 2010/2011 08/02/2011]
Long description
Flint flake, dark brown in colour and irregular shaped. The dorsal surface is 50% covered with light orange cortex. [MJD DDF Body Arts Project 2010/2011 08/02/2011]
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Neolithic, uncertain
Date collected
1907
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1920
Materials and processes
Material Flint Stone, Process Flaked
Dimensions
Thick: max 11 mm, Width: max 23 mm, Length: max 28 mm, Weight 10 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1921.91.405.52
Research and responses

The Neolithic artefacts comprise the majority of the Iffley collection of stone tools collected by Alexander James Montgomerie Bell, yet until recently the collection location was subject to ambiguity. The artefacts themselves were recorded as being from a 'Neolithic site at Iffley' in the Museum catalogue. Bell published nothing on the Neolithic tools, and the Museum holds no details of the location of the Neolithic remains [the manuscript which may hold Bell's original notes being lost, see http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Bell-collection.html ]. Luckily Percy Manning, a prolific recorder of archaeological data in Oxfordshire, made a copy of Bell's notes and recorded that the site was located "Behind Fairacre House, towards Donnington House over about 10 acres" [quote from Manning archive 692, and is copyright The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford]. Based on this description it is possible to place the site at SP 5278 0470 [approx. centre], between Fairacres Convent of the Incarnation and Donnington Lodge. The English Heritage maintained National Monuments Record agrees with this location placing the site "behind Fairacre House, towards Donnington House and spread over an area of about 10 acres" (centered around SP 5277 0473). The site is recorded under monument no. 338524 and can be accessed online at http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=338524. For more information on Bell's collecting activities at Iffley please see http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Iffley-Bell.html . [MN 06/04/2009; MN 18/09/2010]

On the 16th May 1907 Alexander James Montgomerie Bell presented a lecture to the Ashmolean Natural History Society on 'Prehistoric Oxford: Neolithic Settlement at New Iffley'. A report of this lecture was printed in the Oxford Times on May 25, 1907. Percy Manning (a well known local antiquarian) also kept notes on the lecture, these are held as part of the Manning Archive at the Ashmolean Museum, unique ID: Manning 886. [MN 06/04/2009]

The site is recorded on the Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record as a "Multi-Period Flint factory and Occupation Site" under PRN 3652. [MN 06/04/2009]

Search terms: Tool, Flake

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