Description

Summary: An assemblage of Mesolithic flint from a pit identified as a "working hollow" at Oliver's Hill Field, Cherhill, Wiltshire, excavated by I F Smith and J G Evans, on behalf of WANHS, 1967.

Research results

1007 Mesolithic flints from Oliver's Field, inlcuding all of those from the 'working hollow', were re-examined by Davis (2012) as part of their PhD with the University of Worcester. The study is critical of previous, environmentally deterministic, studies of Mesolithic material culture and attempts to ask whether or not Mesolithic use of spring sites in the South West of England was a meaningful choice, rather than a convinient base for hunting expiditions. In particular, a phenomenological approach to tufa springs was adopted, noting the symbolic potential of the springs which can form a stone 'skin' on objects within seconds, or form friable, bone-like layers of stone.

An assemblage of Late Mesolithic flint recovered from a pit identified as a 'working hollow' at Oliver's Hill Field, Cherhill, Wiltshire, excavated by I F Smith and J G Evans, on behalf of WANHS, 1967. The pit was sealed beneath a layer of tufa, a calcium carbonate precipitate which forms when calcium rich water degasses, which also provides a terminus ante quem for the sealed Mesolithic layers of c. 5840 cal BC. Davis (2012) has questioned the original interpretation of this feature, noting that the pit, which was too small to sit in and knap, also contained animal bones, several pieces of sarsen, tufa nodules and a large quantity of burnt flint not mentioned in the original report. They suggest that the feature, which was dug through the natural, was more likely used for a deliberate structured deposit.