POLISHER

A relatively large chunk of hard chalk veering on clunch which appears to possibly have been slightly shaped by human hand although this may just be fortuitous. This item weighs in excess of 200g, being too heavy for the precise set of weighing scales.

Length is 174.0mm, width is 100.7mm and maximum thickness is 28.1mm. The overall appearance is teardrop shaped however the narrower end has a 'U' shaped chunk missing from the terminal and a spall missing from one surface that is greater than a third of that surface but less than half. The wider end has a flattened rather than rounded terminal and is chamfered in a way that gives the impression of human interaction, though this may be fortuitous. The surface that does not have a spall missing from it, has an area (greater than half of the whole surface) which feels smoothed and is slightly concave. This feature may also be fortuitous. Lithic specalist Mr Barry Bishop has examined this stone with a hand lens identifying small but old scratches and grooves on the surface that would be expected to have been removed if this had been used as a polissoir. Mr Bishop's conclusion was that this may very possibly be a polissoir however it is not a particularly convincing example. As so little is known about this tool type, due to the limited number being identified and therefore collected for study it was felt that this lithic should be recorded on the PAS database for future reference in the hope that it may help with future debate about the polissoir artefact type. The overall cross-section is oval, ignoring the missing spall area, veering to sub-oval with a flattened to concave side where the stone has a smoothed, flattened and slightly concave surface.