Could it be?
Could it?
Could this object, nestled in the palm of my hand, have also nestled in the palm of another hand (probably a much hairier one) 12000 years ago or more?
Well, I don't know, but I've become mildly obsessed with this beautiful piece of flint I found in the garden and the idea that it might be a small Stone Age tool. A hand axe perhaps, or a scraper. It caught my eye ages ago and I kept it with the bird skulls, fragments of china, pieces of clay pipe and even a mummified baby rat amongst other random objects that comprise my personal little Garden Finds Museum (admission is free but please phone ahead). I kept it because I thought it looked lovely; there's something compelling about it aesthetically - you could say that it "spoke" to me when I first discovered it in the soil. It feels good too, it feels good in my hand. It was only recently when I stumbled across some images of Paleolithic tools that I suddenly thought about it differently and started to wonder if there had been some human intervention in its formation thousands of years ago.
My mild obsession has led me to numerous websites where I'm learning about things which might help identify whether or not that could be the case. I'm finding out about striking points, bulbs of percussion, negative flake scars, distal termination and ripples - all sorts of things that sound like progressive rock album titles. It's amazing what info you can absorb when you're interested and yet if you tried to teach me about managerial accounting or Coldplay's back catalogue I wouldn't remember a thing.
Perhaps it's more likely that this is just a flake of flint which was naturally battered by time and thermal changes and/or broken by the blades of a combine harvester, but I'd still like to fantasise that it came courtesy of a half naked man with strong, skilled hands and a pet mammoth called Brian*. Ok, that last part might be a bit far-fetched, but still, could it have a back story? I may try to find out more. I'm prepared for a disappointment on the history front but its beauty remains, regardless.
And to go with it, here's a piece of Jurassic beat, very sub-Crampsian and not quite as old as it sounds...
Eddie Angels: Caveman (1993)
* After my friend's cat - not our lovely blogging pal!
There's one thing it definitely is and that's cool.
ReplyDeleteGlad you think so, I do! It's cool to the touch, too.
DeleteThat is definitely some kind of ancient tool.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Bulbs of Percussion and Distal Termination were great. I'm sure I remember John Peel playing them both.
I'd like to think it is. Even if it's not one that was used by a stone age man, it could still be a tool for me - I could probably use it to scrape potatoes...
DeleteGreat bands! Both fans of Nick Cave, and early Stones, perhaps?
One for the finds table.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. Better than a Seven Up ring-pull too.
DeleteThe shape, particularly from the perspective in the third photo, is surely man made. What a great object.
ReplyDeleteI can't help hoping it is. It's quite sharp, and the edges are quite serrated. You can also see where something has struck it at the very top on the outer part of the flake. We have a local heritage centre full of local finds, so I may take it down to them and see what they make of it.
DeleteQuite a find and it must surely be a prehistoric tool. Has beautiful colouring and is more definitely a C kind of object.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a collection you have - A mummified baby rat? I fear whoever moves into our house in the future will find all sorts of small pet remains, but possibly not mummified.
It's beautiful, I could look at it for hours, weird really!
DeleteI love coming across strange things in the garden and wondering about their provenance. Ah, your little pets no doubt had dignified burials. Mine is full of the remains of wild things which I also buried - most recently, very sadly, a wild baby rabbit! As for the mummified baby rat - I mean mummified as in dried up with its skin still intact rather than wrapped in bandages! - I found it alongside another complete baby rat skeleton (also kept).... I prefer to see them alive but it's quite something to look at them in such detail. I sometimes think I could have taken an alternative career path!
Like an episode from The Detectorists!
ReplyDeleteAh yes, lovely programme. Next stop: Anglo Saxon gold!
DeleteIt's a beautiful find C and I can definitely empathise with the feeling of connection to whoever (may have) made it and held it all those thousands of years ago.
ReplyDeleteThere's a barrow and the faint remains of an iron age hill fort in the hills above Manchester. Standing up there looking out towards Cheshire and North Wales I'm always stuck by the thought that some of our ancestors would have looked at the same view (give or take a large city) 3000 years ago.
Yes I know just what you mean - it's a very special feeling to imagine who looked out at those views and trod the paths before us so long ago. Castle ruins and old houses do it as well. The imagination is fired but I love the sense of mystery and the unknown too.
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