The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 16 • Nicholas Barton
—from manufacture to discard. This
concept is often referred to as the
‘chaîne opératoire, literally the chain of
events that links a succession of
actions, such as the steps in
manufacturing a tool.
The first clearly Late Upper
Palaeolithic industry present in Britain
appears to have been the Creswellian.
The term was adopted by Dorothy
Garrod in 1926 to distinguish
artefacts that were recognizably
different in type from those of a
contemporary kind in north-west
Europe. The description of the
Creswellian has recently been revised
(Jacobi in Barton et al. 1991; Jacobi
and Roberts 1992). According to the
stricter definition, the Creswellian is
characterized by lithic tools known as
trapezoidal backed blades (Cheddar
points) and variants of this form
(Creswell points). Amongst other
typical forms are end-scrapers on
long, straight blades, which sometimes
display additional retouch along their
lateral margins. Other tools include
piercers, burins, becs (some of them
true Zinken), Magdalenian blades
Figure 2.2 Creswellian artefacts from Three Holes Cave, Devon: 1. Endscraper
on a blade with scalariform retouch along its lateral margins;
(truncated forms with retouch along
2. Trapezoidal-backed blade (Cheddar point); 3. End-scraper on a blade; their edges), truncated blades with
4. Blade with ‘spur’ (en éperon) butt preparation; 5. Truncated blade with heavily worn ends (lames tronquées et
heavily worn end (lame tronquée et usée).
usées) and splintered pieces (pièces
Source: Illustration by Karen Hughes. Courtesy of the British Museum esquillées). A representative selection is
shown in Figure 2.2. To date, 28
findspots with characteristic Cheddar points have been identified in England and Wales; none is
so far known in Scotland or Ireland (Figure 2.3).
Other features of the Creswellian stone industry are equally distinctive. The debitage (waste)
is typified by longer blades that are slightly curved in profile and show that they were detached
from cores with a single preferred flaking direction. The butts on the blades are usually faceted,
and include evidence of a special preparation technique that leaves a distinct ‘spur’ on the platforms
(Figure 2.2). Flat, diffuse bulbs on the proximal ends of blades indicate a production method
using either soft stone or antler hammers.
A fairly wide range of organic artefacts have been recorded in Creswellian contexts. These are
made in a variety of materials including deer antler, teeth, bone and mammoth ivory. Rare examples
of artefacts made on mammoth products comprise double-bevelled ivory rods (sagaies) from
Gough’s Cave (Somerset) and Kent’s Cavern (Devon). Reindeer antler was used to make batons
(batons percés) at Gough’s Cave and scooped-end rods (also sagaies) at Fox Hole (Derbyshire) and