Sudbury, Suffolk (SUD/14)
The flint
By Lawrence Billington
A relatively small assemblage of 29 worked flints and 22 burnt flints (125g) were recovered from the
excavations (table 1). The flint was thinly distributed and was recovered from a total of 37 individual
contexts from 22 test pits. No single context contained more than three struck flints.
The struck flint assemblage includes very few diagnostic pieces. The only traces of Mesolithic or
earlier Neolithic activity is evidenced by two fine blade based pieces, one from Test Pit 4 and one
from Test Pit 31. The remainder of the assemblage is dominated by relatively crude flake based
material including a high proportion of secondary flakes (which retain cortex on their dorsal
surfaces). This material is not strongly chronologically diagnostic but is likely to date, very broadly,
from the late Neolithic until perhaps as late as the Iron Age. A single piece appears to have been
intentionally retouched; a robust flake with straight steep scraper like retouch along one edge.
5
1
1
7
8
27
2
4
6
1
3
4
5
4
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
unworked burnt flint weight (g)
unworked burnt flint no.
total worked
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
bashed nodule
retouched flake
possible gun flint
blade
tertiary flake
secondary flake
context
1
3
4
5
5
5
7
7
7
8
9
9
9
12
13
primary flake
TP
irregular waste
A single probable gunflint was also recovered, from test pit 23. This piece comprises the intentionally
broken medial portion of a robust blade and has the classic sub rectangular shape and trapezoidal
cross section of a gun flint (see Skertchly 1897). Gunflints were in use in Britain from early in the 17th
Century until the later 19th Century and typical gunflints such as this piece are likely to date from c.
1750 to 1880 AD (Kenmotsu 1990). The flint is a relatively light grey and, as such, is unlikely to derive
from the large scale gunflint industry at Brandon which made almost exclusively use of the dark
grey/black flint of the Brandon series (Skertchly 1879).
1
4.4
1
1
1
3
9.4
10.1
1
1
12.9
2.2
1
1
1
1
1
2
3
5
5
6
1
1
2
3
4
5
3
1
1
11
2
3
4
5
3
6
2
2
1
1
unworked burnt flint weight (g)
unworked burnt flint no.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
2.5
11.7
2.5
11.3
12.5
1
1
1
5.5
1
5.3
2
2
2
6.5
2
17.5
1
1.6
22
125
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
total worked
bashed nodule
retouched flake
possible gun flint
blade
tertiary flake
secondary flake
primary flake
context
14
18
18
20
23
23
23
23
23
26
27
28
28
30
31
31
31
32
32
33
34
35
irregular waste
TP
1
1
2
1
1
totals
1
2 12
9
2
Table 1. Basic quantification of the flint assemblage
1
1
1
1
2
29
Kenmotsu, N. 1990. Gunflints: A Study. Historical Archaeology 24 (2), 92-124
Skertchly, S. B. J. 1879. On the manufacture of gun-flints: the methods of excavating for flint, the age of
Palaeolithic man and the connexion between Neolithic art and the gun-flint trade London: HMSO