Lithic Slate tools.
Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:46 am
It is known Slate was used for making knives & scrapers mainly, during the Neolithic period, although such specimens seem to be a rarity amongst our museums & similar bodies. There are i believe 1 or 2 museums in Scotland that house a couple of pieces but the BM dosen't have any, although they are aware of their existance, but they refrain from accepting my pieces as being the latter purely because they have no similar's for reference. I now have a few dozen, collected over the last few years, each 1 coming from the soil of rich lithic area's that are littered with flint tools & implements deep in the Nene Valley, known for its duration of habitation. Each 1 is man carved, some have notches, others smoothed down blades & all averaging the same in size.
Phil harding & Nick Ashton contacted me via email recently & told me that due to the fact Northamptonshire has not reaped any such pieces, they cant be tools....what absolute rubbish....have these people dug up every square inch of Northants?...are they aware of every lithic settlement in Northants?...have they viewed these pieces i have in the flesh to state they are not the latter?...NO to all!!! After sending some scanned pics to show what i have, they still refrain from accepting them as being actual tools, ok fair enough pics sent via scanner dosen't show the full dimention of the piece & i agree they could be seen as just Slate pieces...but these are only found on 1 or 2 rich lithic patches, there are no records of any building on this site...(i have done my homework on this), there are no brick fragments, no modern rubbish, just flint tools & these Slate implements. I even have a piece with typical lithic "lined" detail engraved on it along with a nice pottery shard also housing stunning engraving...all from the same spot & yet they still say no to accepting them...Nick even said that my engraved pottery shard wasn't such.
If i could find where to add some pics?? i could get a few more opinions.
Also look at the measurments of the Slate pieces, all similar in size, alot are in common lithic tool form & there are no records anywhere of any1 from any era smoothing down the sides of Slate for no purpose what so ever so how do they explain my smoothed down pieces from over 10mm down to a fine cutting blade?...well they cant, apparantly its a natural occurance LOL naturally occuring smoothness in Slate....worth logging is that!
Phil harding & Nick Ashton contacted me via email recently & told me that due to the fact Northamptonshire has not reaped any such pieces, they cant be tools....what absolute rubbish....have these people dug up every square inch of Northants?...are they aware of every lithic settlement in Northants?...have they viewed these pieces i have in the flesh to state they are not the latter?...NO to all!!! After sending some scanned pics to show what i have, they still refrain from accepting them as being actual tools, ok fair enough pics sent via scanner dosen't show the full dimention of the piece & i agree they could be seen as just Slate pieces...but these are only found on 1 or 2 rich lithic patches, there are no records of any building on this site...(i have done my homework on this), there are no brick fragments, no modern rubbish, just flint tools & these Slate implements. I even have a piece with typical lithic "lined" detail engraved on it along with a nice pottery shard also housing stunning engraving...all from the same spot & yet they still say no to accepting them...Nick even said that my engraved pottery shard wasn't such.
If i could find where to add some pics?? i could get a few more opinions.
Also look at the measurments of the Slate pieces, all similar in size, alot are in common lithic tool form & there are no records anywhere of any1 from any era smoothing down the sides of Slate for no purpose what so ever so how do they explain my smoothed down pieces from over 10mm down to a fine cutting blade?...well they cant, apparantly its a natural occurance LOL naturally occuring smoothness in Slate....worth logging is that!
