Further to our recent news that we had won funding for an evaluation of some of the stones from our mesolithic/neolithic site in Tameside, we were happy to welcome Ann Clarke to one of our gatherings, where she gave us a very interesting talk on stone tools.
Ann is a freelance archaeologist and lithic specialist with considerable experience, especially in Shetland and Orkney. She came down last week to look through the stones so that the assessment sample could be selected, but kindly agreed to talk to us first.
She covered a range of finds, their possible uses and how they were formed, stimulating some lively discussion afterwards.
The following morning it was down to work and Ann was tweeting “It’s not all pretty rocks. I’m currently in a garage in Manchester going through 1000 stone finds from excavation by @tasarch5”! It is certainly true that there is more to assessing stones than meets the eye.
The next step was to get the selection up to Scotland where Ann could carry out her evaluation and prepare a report.
We look forward to sharing the results on here at some point in the future.
Ann explains how the Skaill knives pictured on the screen were formed and used.
The garage – and the rocks – in question!
