School of Human & Environmental Science
Dept. of Archaeology
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| University of Reading School of Human & Environmental Science Dept. of Archaeology Human Origins Research Group |
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Broom Excavations |
Broom Excavations: Lithic artefactsDespite the rich artefact heritage of Broom (c. 1,800 artefacts are estimated by the Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project (Wessex Archaeology 1993), lithics were in very short supply during all three seasons. One controversial flake was recovered during the 2000 season from the Railway Ballast Pit (Figures 1-2), while three further examples were recovered from Pratt's New Pit in the 2002 season.
This paucity of finds is relatively unsurprising however, since C.E. Bean estimated in 1935 that the output of gravel from Pratt's Old Pit was c. 60 tons per day (c. 330 tons per week), and that 150 tons of gravel yielded just 6 bifaces (roughly 1 biface per 25 tons of gravel). Since the current excavations removed nothing like these quantities of gravels, it is perhaps unsurprising (although still disappointing!) that no bifaces were recovered.
Figure 1: Flake 1 (dorsal surface)
Figure 2: Flake 1 (ventral surface)
E-mail: r.hosfield@rdg.ac.uk
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| Dept. of Archaeology School of Human and Environmental Sciences University of Reading Whiteknights PO Box 227 Reading RG6 6AB Maintained by r.hosfield@rdg.ac.uk | |
