File:A possible Neolithic retouched flake possibly from blade manufacture (FindID 957926).jpg

English: A possible Neolithic retouched flake possibly from blade manufacture. The fragment is from a tertiary flake of flint. The flint is a mottled grey and white with a little orange staining. It has a semi-glossy patina.

It is sub-rectangular in plan although the right edge, as seen from the dorsal surface, is slightly longer than the left giving it a point. Its right edge has small short traces of low angled, sub-parallel retouch in its central third above which is a small v-shaped chip. The dorsal surface shows two negative flake removals while the ventral surface has none. Its left edge has similarly low angled and parallel retouch across its length. The proximal end of the flint appears to have been snapped, although the differential colouration of this section suggests this occurred after its deposition. The distal end has a less clean break with an irregular edge but is similarly more darkly coloured.

The flake is 27.2mm long, 15.0mm wide, 4.4mm thick and weighs 1.98 grams

This artefact is part of a larger assemblage of other flint artefacts that has been found at the spot indicated. Those flints and chert pieces which can be dated appear to date from the Neolithic (starting c. 4000 BC), due to the presence of several end scrapers and the evidence of wide blade production, to the early Bronze Age (ending c.1600 BC), due to the presence of multi-platform working and thumbnail scrapers. However, it is not inconceivable that some of these flints may also date from the Mesolithic period as some pieces of debitage show narrow blade technology. Similarly scrapers have a wide period of use dating as late as even the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age the flints from these periods typically being coarse as some of the debitage found.Nearby another assemblage has similar characteristics but also with an Early Bronze Age component ( c.2400-1600 BC), due to the presence of multi-platform working and thumbnail scrapers such that a Neolithic date is more likely for these cores.