The petrological identification of stone implements from South-Western England: Fifth Report of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western Federation of Museums and Art Galleries

Abstract

The present report is the fifth to be issued by this Committee in the course of 35 years' work on the petrological identification of stone implements. The four earlier reports (Keiller, Piggott and Wallis, 1941; Stone and Wallis, 1947; Stone and Wallis, 1951; Evens, Grinsell, Piggott and Wallis, 1962—hereafter referred to as the Fourth Report) were concerned primarily with stone implements from South-Western England, but also included implements from other parts of the British Isles. Since the early 1960s, when a series of regional implement petrology surveys was set up under the aegis of the Council for British Archaeology, this Committee's official work has been confined to the South-West, a region which, for administrative purposes, now comprises the seven counties of Berkshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire, together with the Channel Islands. Hampshire, formerly within this Committee's area of special interest, has been allocated to the South-East, with Sussex, Surrey and Kent. The present report is concerned, therefore, exclusively with implements from the South-West, as defined above.

Petrological Identification of Stone Implements from Derbyshire and Leicestershire

“…The recent publication of implement identifications from Yorkshire (Keen and Radley 1971); East Anglia (Clough and Green 1972); Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland (Cummins and Moore 1973); and the continuing work on the South-West (Evens et al 1972) has resulted in a much clearer picture emerging of the overall distribution of the various petrological groups. This report, dealing with Leicestershire and Derbyshire, has produced no surprises in the form of the discovery of any further groups, and can add very little to the chronology of the implement groups.…”