Now where did I leave that arrowhead?

[Globetrotter.uk]

This article is in today's local, just wondering how they can prove the age, it could have been made by one of us and left behind.

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/cont...gory=news&itemid=NOED21 Nov 2008 12:11:12:047

 

[robin wood]

Good question and the answer of course is we can't know. With a find like this with no stratigraphy to help it's all about balance of probability. Many of the best knappers and certainly those connected with archaeology will work different types of flint or make slightly different forms unless doing museum replicas to avoid possible future confusion.

Here are a pair of earrings Phil Harding made for Nicola (Dr Spoon) when we used to do traditional crafts demos together (before his Time Team days) He is a very good knapper but these are made in Polish flint, just in case she loses them in a trench.

 

[Toddy]

There are techniques, very expensive mind you, that can now tell us how long a period has expired since a stone was worked..............don't know how accurate they are on the short time span of human habitation of these islands this time round though

No context, no knapping debris, no evidence of associated hunting; then you are stuck trying to give an interpretation using typology and regional variation based on previously recorded finds.

cheers,
Toddy