Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1921.91.459.144

Possible small ?core. Sub circular in shape with flakes struck off around the circumference. The stone is a dark brownish balck colour. [MN 04/08/2009]

1921.91.459.144

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Possible small ?core. Sub circular in shape with flakes struck off around the circumference. The stone is a dark brownish balck colour. [MN 04/08/2009]
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Lower Palaeolithic Acheulian
Date collected
By 1920
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1920
Materials and processes
Material Stone, Process Flaked
Dimensions
Depth: max 11 mm, Width: max 22 mm, Length: max 24 mm, Weight 7 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1921.91.459.144
Research and responses

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 does not appear to have been studied by Lee. 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]

TThe 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]

Search terms: Tool, Core

Further items to explore