Monument record MLI50968 - UNLOCATED OCCUPATION AND FLINTWORKING SITE PROBABLY OF THE EARLY MESOLITHIC

Summary

UNLOCATED OCCUPATION AND FLINTWORKING SITE PROBABLY OF THE EARLY MESOLITHIC

Type and Period (4)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Full Description

An open air 'station' (occupation and flint-working site) of late Upper Aurignacian date, discovered in 1931 by Ethel Rudkin, near the western escarpment of the Lincolnshire Cliff, above the village of Willoughton. The site was systematically excavated during February and March of 1932 by Ethel Rudkin and Leslie Armstrong. The actual living area was revealed by deep ploughing operations in January 1932 and from the general character of the artefacts brought up to the surface by the plough it was obvious that the industry represented one of the later phases of the English Upper Aurignacian culture, related to the industry of the Sheffield's Hill site, near Scunthorpe. The Willoughton station, however, has proved upon excavation to belong to an earlier phase of Upper Aurignacian than the Sheffield's Hill site, and is more closely related to the middle zone of Mother Grundy's Parlour at Creswell Crags. An area of 200 square feet was carefully excavated and the site proved to be a living and workshop area which yielded, from a stratum 9 to 12 inches in thickness, over 4,000 artefacts of which a large proportion are finished implements, 20% being burins. The total depth excavated was 2 feet and revealed a section as follows:- surface soil and humus 9 inches deep, covering a relic bed of yellow sandy clay and stones, 9 inches thick, containing charcoal, artefacts, etc., resting upon a basement bed of limestone slabs and boulder clay. This basement layer contained some scattered flints in the top, but the remainder was sterile. 6 inches were excavated. The thickness of the relic bed and the presence of stratified hearths at various levels, seem to indicate a long occupation of the site, but from the character of the layer this occupation was periodic rather than continuous. The relic bed was entirely undisturbed except where the plough had, in places, skimmed the uppermost layer. The implements include burins, of angle, polyhedral, single blow and busque types; carinated and keeled scrapers; gravette and other typical points; backed blades; end scrapers and scrapers on blades. Though the blades reveal a tendency towards the microlithic, this is not pronounced, and true microliths are extremely rare. {2} Clark suggests that typologically similar assemblages for which Armstrong claimed an Upper Palaeolithic date are possibly of early Mesolithic date but that such methods of argument needed to be corroborated by pollen-analysis or some other geo-chronological technique. {3}{4}{5} There is no exact location given for this site - possibly one of Ethel Rudkin's Upper Palaeolithic/Mesolithic sites - PRNs 50964, 50965, 50966 or 50967?

Sources/Archives (5)

  •  Index: OS CARD INDEX. WILLOUGHTON. SK 99 SW:2,1964, COLQUHOUN F.
  •  Article in Serial: ARMSTRONG, A.L.. 1934. PROCEEDINGS OF THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY OF EAST ANGLIA. VOL 7 pp130-131.
  •  Article in Serial: CLARK, J.G.D.. 1955. PROCEEDINGS OF THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. VOL 21 p19.
  •  Bibliographic Reference: Jeffrey May. 1976. Prehistoric Lincolnshire. pp 32,34.
  •  Bibliographic Reference: J.J. Wymer and C.J. Bonsall (eds.). 1977. Gazetteer of Mesolithic Sites in England and Wales, with a Gazetteer of Upper Palaeolithic Sites in England and Wales. p.182.

Map

No mapped location recorded.

Location

Grid reference Not recorded
Civil Parish WILLOUGHTON, WEST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE

Related Monuments/Buildings (4)

Related Events/Activities (1)

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External Links (0)

Record last edited

Feb 15 2024 1:04PM

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