Description

Summary: 1 perforated slate whetstone with convex surfaces carefully cut to shape and a loop for suspension, found with a primary cremation in Bowl Barrow Wilsford G23, excavated by William Cunnington

Research results

A Bronze Age perforated whetstone, excavated from bowl barrow Wilsford G23 by William Cunnington. This is one of a series of similar whetstones found in early Bronze Age graves, often found accompanying daggers - as in this example. The whetstone was one of a number of grave goods accompanying a primary cremation, alongside two daggers, a pin and an unusual bone flute made from the radius of a crane. Use wear analysis of the whetstones suggests that many were indeed used to sharpen blades. This example is of a fine grained ferruginous mudstone with a probable source on the South Western penninsula - interestingly an earlier 'sponge finger stone' from West Overton G6b is chemically very similar and may be from the same or a similar outcrop, suggesting that a known source was returned to over the course of several centuries.