We have recently returned from geoarchaeological surveying at Killerby Quarry where we have been reconstructing ancient landscapes, changing climatic conditions and changes in human land use through time.
Whilst in the field we recovered a number of flint tools from sand and gravel terraces which overlooked what would once have been standing bodies of water contained within depressions created by former ice-masses. A number of these stone tools were identified as being from the early Neolithic, during the fourth millennium BC. These are tools left by the earliest farming groups who evidently occupied the area around these wetlands, which would have provided a useful resource for a wide range of activities from processing tasks through to fowling and plant collection. Note the leaf-shaped arrowhead in the centre and the red-brown flint on the right which is an end scraper and was likely to have been used for the preparation of hides.