Neolithic Flint Chisel
The first definitive find from the Neolithic Period was an exceptional polished Late Neolithic Flint Chisel measuring 7 cm by 2 cm and found on the boulder clay in the Old Vicarage Garden in Trench 16 during 2002.Unfortunately we have not found any associated archaeology or comparably dated material from this area of the site, so it seems likely that this wonderful chisel might have been ritually buried here and the site itself may not have been an area of settled habitation.
Report on the Neolithic Chisel
An exerpt taken from a report by the Assistant County Archaeologist, Andrew Myers, describes it as follows:
" This artefact is best described as a 'waisted' polished flint chisel. The platform may have served as a point for percussion force to be applied in using the tool. It is possible that the atrefact was hafted (at the waist) into a bone or wooden haft, split for the insertion of the tool, and bound using wet sinew...Such elaborate and careful polishing of flint tools is normally associated with Late Neolithic Assemblages. Although parallels must exist in the Derbyshire/ Manchester/ South Yorkshire region, I have yet to find a comparable piece."