A polished hand-axe from West Runton, Norfolk

Extract

The flint implement which it is the purpose of this note to illustrate and describe was found upon the surface of a ploughed field situated on the top of the cliff, immediately to the east of West Runton Gap, Norfolk. It is made from a honey-coloured flint, in places passing into a putty shade with areas of black staining. So far as its form and flaking are concerned, it is a characteristic ovate hand-axe, thickest at about the middle line, and with a wavy cutting-edge extending round nearly the whole of the periphery of the implement. The drawings and section (figs, 1, 1A, and 1B) here reproduced give a clear idea of the general appearance of the specimen, which weighs 5 oz. and measures in greatest length 3 3/16 in., in greatest width 2 5/16 in., and in greatest thickness 1 10/16 in. The flaking is all to be referred to one period, and exhibits a noticeable amount of gloss. The specimen is little, if at all, abraded, and its flake-scars show one or two striations, but no incipient cones of percussion, while in the interstices of both faces are to be seen patches of a highly ferruginous material containing sand, and occasionally a small amount of grey, humus-like substance is to be observed attached to portions of the flaked surfaces.