Small Finds: Flint Hammerstone

I took this in 2019 after an informal reconnaisance of Some exposed soils close to Santon Road and the Little Ouse at around TL 779 837. The area was littered in flint roughout debris, and there were a lot of hammerstones like this. It is tempting to imagine that this was an area of Francis Healy's Grimes Graves Belt where flint was roughed out to be transported elsewhere by the river. But I'm not so wildly imaginative to suggest that.

See that crazing on the face of the hammerstone? I often found these on the forest-walks. There was no easy supply of harder rock for knapping flint. Local knappers instead used flint itself, or soft hammers and punches. That crazing is evidence of such use. Fits well in the hand doesn't it?