(Above) The Univesity of Leicester Archaeology team at work. ULAS
University of Leicester archaeologists have discovered a Mesolithic Stone Age weapons factory on a building site near Melton in Leicestershire.
Thousands of tiny pieces of flint remained hidden and preserved by layers of soil for 10,000 years until property developers started excavations for a new housing estate.
Dr Patrick Clay and his team from the University of Leicester Archaeology Service (ULAS) now have the mammoth task of cataloguing around 8,000 finds.
(Above) A selection of the thousands of finds. ULAS
"What we have here is still on the original ground that the Stone Age workers would have been standing on 10,000 years ago, sealed in place by layers of colluvium," explained Dr Clay.
"We plot each find using GPS satellite positioning and, due to the amount of finds, we can almost plot where people would have been sitting and standing when they were working and making the weapons."
He added: “We estimate that the area was used by this Mesolithic or mid Stone Age group around 10,000 years ago and most of the finds are fragments of flint and we have also found some pieces of burnt bone.”
(Above) The ULAS team digging up the Stone Age weapons factory. ULAS
The tiny pieces are called microliths and would have been attached to the end of arrowheads and spears. Most of them are around 5-10 mm.
"What's incredibly rare is that these pieces have not been moved – usually any of these finds have been moved around in plough soil or by other modern activities," added Dr Clay.
"This is the dim and distant past before farming was introduced and when Britain was still attached to the continent. There were still people moving through Europe into Britain."
The local council are hoping a selection of the finds will go on display at the Local Melton Carnegie Museum after the ULAS team have completed the long task of cataloguing their extensive finds.
For more information about ULAS visit the University of Leicester Archaeology Service website.
