Mesolithic Flints
An assemblage of almost 200 Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age ) Flint artefacts were uncovered from a small area within Trenches 3 and 21 close to the highest part of the hilltop within the Old Vicarage Garden..
The distribution map suggests that the flint knapper sat in the centre of the Old Vicarage garden making flint tools. The scrap flakes fell to the ground and scattered around him for us to find thousands of years later.
Composites of microliths were the particular stone tool favoured during this period, small fragments of stone flakes struck from a central core and assembled together to make tools and weapons.The assemblage was analised by Dr. Andrew Myres, Assistant County Archaeologist. He has suggested that a wide range of flaking activity seems to have taken place on the site, the discard of blades and flakes suggesting both Production and Maintenance
The character of the main part of the assemblage suggests a later Mesolithic date and the flints themselves may have come from boulder clay deposits as far afield as the Wolds of Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire, or the Trent Valley in Nottinghamshire.
Read the 1999 Report on the Lithic Assemblage by Dr Andrew Myers, Assistant County Archaeologist
Read more about Mellor in the Region in the 2000/2001 Archaeological Report
Read more about the Mesolithic Period in Britain on the Channel 4 Time Team website
Copyright: All items may be reproduced with permission from the
Mellor Archaeological Trust
