Neolithic Polished Flint Axehead

Found in situ in Thetford Forest

I do not find these very often – I mainly find lithic debitage, including lots of late prehistoric flakes, chips, and cores, alongside a scattering of scrapers and piercers. However, here I found this broken fragment of a polished flint axehead. It is clearly Neolithic and dates to somewhere between 4,200 and 6,200 years ago.

This is actually only the second polished flint axehead that I have found in the area, and both were of the same light grey colour – in stark contrast with the vast volumes of other lithics in the region. Does this suggest that the locals used axes from outside the area? Despite the proximity of the Grime's Graves flint mines, they simply do not look as though they are made of the local material.