Dinnington, Foxcovert, flints

HER Number:
8012

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Dinnington, Foxcovert, flints

Place:
Dinnington

Map Sheet:
NZ17SE

Class:
Tools and Equipment

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Lithic Implement

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Mesolithic/Neolithic/Bronze Age

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
158 lithics were collected during fieldwalking at Foxcovert in advance of open cast coal mining. Large number of tools mostly dating to Mesolithic period. The assemblage is of particular interest as there are a number of heavily patinated pieces which are probably early Mesolithic. Some of these have been recycled into later tools such as a scraper, which after discard and subsequent patination was then rechipped again into a scraper that would be typical of types found in later Mesolithic assemblages. A blade tool has been re-chipped at a later date into a scraper. Another piece that is probably Early Mesolithic is a patinated broken blade segment from a triangular-section broad blade piece and a broad blade microburin. Interestingly, no broad blade tools like this have been found in dated later Mesolithic assemblages such as Howick in Northumberland. This area formed the margin of a Post-Glacial Lake (Prestwick Carr), and there is no reason why it should not have been utilised in a similar way to the better known North Yorkshire sites around Lake Pickering (Star Carr etc). Other pieces in the assemblage can be confidently ascribed to the Later Mesolithic. This includes a wide range of tools ranging from cores, burins and scrapers to microburins and edge-trimmed blades and an awl. There is also possibly a small amount of later material in the assemblage dating to the Neolithic and/or Early Bronze Age including a beautiful disc scraper and pieces made from nodular flint. 93.7% of the assemblage is made from flint, 5.1% is chert and 0.6% is agate and tuff.

Easting:
197

Northing:
747

Grid Reference:
NZ197747

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Dr Clive Waddington, Archaeological Research Services Ltd, 2005, Lithic Report for Fieldwalking at Fox Covert Field, Northumberland; Warren Muncaster, Tyne and Wear Museums, September 2007, Archive Report, Fox Covert OCCS, Dinnington, Tyne and Wear - Archaeological Excavation; Nick Hodgson, Jonathan McKelvey and Warren Muncaster, 2012, The Iron Age on the Northumberland Coastal Plain - excavations in advance of development 2002-2010 (Tyne and Wear Archives & Museums Archaeological Monograph No. 3, TWM Archaeology and the Arbeia Society)