Rights Holder: Royal Institution of Cornwall
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Unique ID: CORN-9951E7
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Fine-grained greenstone cobble, circular in plan, and ovate in profile and section. The upper and lower or base surfaces have both been ground and the facet at one end of the stone has been ground flat, while the other rounded end has been pecked, suggesting extensive use as a hammerstone and possibly a pestle. Such pieces do turn up on domestic sites but not in any quantity compared to mullers and rubbers. On these objects the waterworn cobble surfaces are all fresh and unweathered, appropriate for selection from a beach during the Neolithic. The beach selection would ensure hard enduring pieces. It is quite possible that the wear on these objects has been caused by grinding pieces in the axe manufacture process (Henrietta Quinnell, Clodgy Moor stonework, forthcoming).
Examples of hammerstones and pestles have been found on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Cornwall, such as the Beaker site at Boscaswell, St Just, illustrated in Jones and Quinnell (2008) on page 47, Fig.11, No.S2 and the Bronze Age site at Trethellan, Newquay, illustrated in Nowakowski (1991) on page 149, Fig.62, No.99.
Current location of find: Royal Cornwall Museum
Subsequent action after recording: Donated to a museum
Broad period: NEOLITHIC
Subperiod from: Early
Period from: NEOLITHIC
Subperiod to: Late
Period to: BRONZE AGE
Date from: Circa 4500 BC
Date to: Circa 700 BC
Quantity: 1
Length: 79 mm
Width: 71 mm
Thickness: 53 mm
Weight: 449.85 g
Date(s) of discovery: Saturday 1st December 2007 - Monday 31st December 2007
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Other reference: 567F.2
Museum accession number: 2011.23
Primary material: Stone
Manufacture method: Ground/polished
Completeness: Complete
4 Figure: SW4526
Four figure Latitude: 50.079285
Four figure longitude: -5.565627
1:25K map: SW4526
1:10K map: SW46SE
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jones, A. and Quinnell, H. | 2008 | Cornish Beakers: new discoveries and perspectives | Bristol | Cornwall Archaeological Society | 47, Fig.11, | No.S2 | |
Nowakowski, J. | 1991 | Trethellan Farm, Newquay: The excavation of a lowland Bronze Age settlement and Iron Age cemetery | Redruth | Cornwall Lithographic Printers Ltd. | 149, Fig.62, | No.99 |