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1921.91.459.132

Pointed form tool, bifacially worked with cortex remaining at the butt. The flint has well developed patina, mid orangish brown in colour. [MN 04/08/2009]

1921.91.459.132

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Collection type
Object
Description
Pointed form tool, bifacially worked with cortex remaining at the butt. The flint has well developed patina, mid orangish brown in colour. [MN 04/08/2009]
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Lower Palaeolithic Acheulian
Date collected
By 1920
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1920
Materials and processes
Material Flint Stone, Process Flaked
Dimensions
Depth: max 39 mm, Width: max 60 mm, Length: max 87 mm, Weight 175 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1921.91.459.132 Other numbers: 15
Research and responses

The gravel pit from which the Iffley palaeolithic tools were recovered is often recorded as being located at SP 525 044 [see page 91 of John Wymer’s 1968 book Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain, as Represented by the Thames Valley] or in the vicinity of SP 528 033 [see page 250 of Derek Roe’s 1968 report A Gazetteer of British Lower & Middle Palaeolithic Sites, Council for British Archaeology, Research Report 8]. The former location is adjacent to the Thames and Donnington Bridge and underneath the City of Oxford Rowing Club, the latter centred on the Rose Hill estate built to the south of Iffley village in the mid 20th century. Both locations are inaccurate, and it is believed the actual location is 250m further east than the Wymer reference, and 1.3km further north than the Roe reference. Near contemporary reports place the site at 'Cornish's Pit' [see http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Iffley-Bell.html for details]. Historic Ordnance Survey maps show only one gravel pit in the area, this pit is present on the 1st Edition 1:2500 County Series [published for this area between 1875 and 1878] and has disappeared by the time of the first revision [published between 1899 and 1900]. By the mid 20th century the pit had been built upon, and it is now buried beneath the rear garden of number 43 Donnington Bridge Road [SP 5272 0450]. [MN 24/02/2009]

It seems that the only published reference to Iffley by Bell is on p129 in "Bell, A.M. 1904. 'Implementiferous sections at Wolvercote (Oxfordshire)'. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 60:120- 132." (copy in Related Documents File under 1921.91.473) [CB 29/10/2009]

Associated publications
In 2000 a selection of 145 Iffley tools were analysed by Hyeong Woo Lee as part of his PhD thesis on Lower Palaeolithic Stone Artefacts from Selected Sites in the Upper and Middle Thames Valley [St Cross College, University of Oxford]. The thesis was published as a British Archaeological Report [number 319, British Series] in 2001 under the same title. This object was one of those investigated by Lee under catalogue number 15 [2001: 200, 201]. Lee describes this object as being a pointed form produced on local flint. Full reference: Lee HW. 2001. A Study of Lower Palaeolithic Stone Artefacts from Selected Sites in the Upper and Middle Thames Valley, with Particular Reference to the R. J. MacRae Collection. Oxford: B.A.R (British Series 319). [MN 11/02/2009]

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