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1912.19.8.26

Flint flake, no retouch. Probable debitage. [MN 17/03/2009]

1912.19.8.26

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Collection type
Object
Description
Flint flake, no retouch. Probable debitage. [MN 17/03/2009]
Long description
Flint flake, no retouch, probable debitage. Four large [over 20mm long] flake scars are visible on the dorsal face. The flint has a well developed patina, light greyish white in colour. [MN 17/03/2009]
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Neolithic
Date collected
By 1912
Acquisition information
Donated: 1912
Materials and processes
Material Flint Stone, Process Flaked
Dimensions
Thick: max 3 mm, Width: max 11 mm, Length: max 22 mm, Weight 1 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1912.19.8.26
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. 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]

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]

Percy Manning in his 1921 survey of Oxfordshire recorded 'Flint cores, flakes etc.' from New Iffley collected By Bell [page 250]. A copy is in RDF: Researchers File: Manning. Full article reference: Manning, P and Leeds, E. T. 1921. An archaeological survey of Oxfordshire. Archaeologia 71: 227-265. [MN 03/12/2008]

For general information on the Museum's collections of Oxfordshire archaeological material including lists of sites, grid references etc see Archaeological Material from Oxfordshire in the Collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum by Simon Thorpe [unpublished spiral bound report dated June 1996, copy in RDF: Researchers File: Thorpe]. [MN 07/04/2009]

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, Debitage

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