Stone Age Farnham

the Stone Age? From the rock paintings of the Palaeolithic, to the nomadic flint-knappers of the Mesolithic, to the early farming technology of the Neolithic – the prehistoric period represents our first ancestors. Yet, the broad span of the periods – almost 100,000 years – covers such a diverse range of artefacts and complexity of themes that it is the stage of history which is often the most difficult to conceptualize. Looking at prehistory early on in the primary curriculum can help develop a good chronological understanding of British history, which is why it is often the first period covered in Key Stage 2. It can also be a great way ofintroducing the discipline of archaeology and object-based learning through its wealth of visual and artefactual material, and depending on the activities chosen, lessons can also easily tie into Art, Drama and English work.

Suggested sources (a good internet search will result in more!) Historic England’s educational resources - historicengland.org.uk/

services-skills/education (includes teaching activities and classroom resources, such as an immersive interactive timeline)

Canterbury Christ Church University Stone Age for KS2 - www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-humanities/school-of-humanities/ archaeology/stone-age-for-ks2.aspx

Ancient Craft Three Age Experience - www.ancientcraft.co.uk

Schools Prehistory and Archaeology - www.schoolsprehistory.co.uk

Young Archaeologists’ Club - www.yac-uk.org

Local loans boxes are also available from the Museum, Surrey Archaeological Society and Surrey County Archaeological Unit

Want to learn about Find out more about Farnham’s unique past

The Museum of Farnham is an accredited and award-winning museum situated within the Georgian Grade I-listed Willmer House. Within its local studies library and stores it holds the largest collection of archives from the area, and it runs temporary exhibitions and events throughout the year, including the regular lecture series organised by the Museum Society.

www.farnhammaltings.com/museum

Much of what we know about Farnham’s early past comes from the work of local archaeologists in the Surrey Archaeological Society, who run fieldwork and heritage outreach projects in the Farnham area, including the community dig Finding Farnham.

www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk

Other links Farnham & District Museum Society - www.farnhammuseumsociety.org.uk

The Farnham Society - farnhamsociety.org.uk Surrey History Centre - www.surreycc.gov.uk/culture-and-leisure/history-centre

Surrey Heritage (Exploring Surrey’s Past) - www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk

Wrecclesham History project - wreccleshamhistory.wordpress.com

Hale History project - www.halehistoryproject.co.uk Rural Life Centre - rural-life.org.uk

Butser Ancient Farm - www.butserancientfarm.co.uk

Guildford Museum - guildford.gov.uk/museum Curtis & Aldershot Military Museum - www.hampshireculture.org.uk

Artwork by Victor Ambrus

Flint-knapping

Farnham’s history as a craft town can be argued to extend back as far as the Stone Age, as the technologically advanced art of flint-knapping is prominent in the area.

Flint-knapping is a complicated process which involves carefully controlled fracturing of stone – usually flint – by striking an impact point and sending energy waves/ripples throughout. By using different hammers, edge angles, strike power and speed, an experienced knapper can control how and where flakes detach from the core of the stone.

The aim is of course to produce lithics – tools made from raw stone material – which can be divided into three basic form types: debitage (the usually small waste flakes and chips produced from knapping), cores (what is shaped by gradual reduction through flakes, etc being knapped off), and of course tools (whether arrowheads, scrapers, burins, knives, axeheads or other various types).

The flint – silicon dioxide (SiO2) – has a fine crystalline grain with a glassy character, making it ideal for knapping. Stones of different geological types are local to different regions in Britain, and it is possible to tell when certain lithic tools were made from stone which was imported (usually making it a clearly valuable and prized item).

Advances in lithic technology can reveal many things about how the brains of prehistoric people developed as the envi-ronment changed around them, resulting in different chal-lenges which required different solutions. The evidence of this change can be seen in how tools evolved from – for instance – crude pebble choppers to intricate knives.

Hidden Heritage

A local archaeological & heritage

guide to Farnham’s buried past

Farnham & District Museum Society

Surrey Archaeological Society

For more information, images and pdfs of leaflets visit www.farnham.gov.uk/hiddenheritage

Published by Farnham Town Council

and devised and designed by Anne Sassin © 2019

farnhamofficial

Silbury Hill, Wilts, c. 2470-2350 BC

Layout a timeline (to scale!) of the prehistoric period up to the modern day

Activity ideas:

450,000 - 2,500 BC

The Stone Age was a considerably broad period, divided into the Palaeo-(‘Old’), Meso-(‘Middle) and Neo-(‘New’) eras.

The Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) in Britain begins with the appearance of the first humans and ends with the retreat of the glaciers during the last Ice Age. During this vast period, both Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens emerged and undertook hunting and scavenging for their subsistence. Our main evidence of this era are the stone tools left behind, as well as occasional cave art as in Creswell Crags, Derbyshire.

The Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) is characterized by nomadic groups whose open tundra landscape shifted to covered woodland as a result of climatic warming and rising sea levels, which eventually led to the separation of Britain from the continent around 6,500 BC. The small groups of hunter-gatherers lived off what they could find or hunt seasonally, with their flint tools and waste flakes indications of their movement from site to site.

The Neolithic is regarded as the point when farming was introduced, although the earliest agricultural economy was a mix of pastoralism, horticulture, hunting and gathering. The need to look after crops and livestock meant that more permanent settlement was needed, and with fire and new tool types such as polished axes, larger areas of forest were cleared. The period also saw the introduction of pottery and large ceremonial monuments, such as the long barrow atnearby Badshot Lea.

PALAEOLITHIC MESOLITHIC NEOLITHIC Lower Palaeolithic Middle Palaeolithic Upper Palaeolithic

Hunter-gatherer communities Mobile farming communities 8300 BC 35000 BC 200,000 BC 4300 BC 2000 BC

Proper angle for striking ‘platform’ edge to strike, and resulting flake © James Dilley

The Stone Age

Timeline

130,000,000 BC - Baronyx (the ‘Surrey Dinosaur’, so- named from a skeleton near Ockley) was the top predator in warm swampy southern England

800,000 BC - Humans (Homo antecessor) probably first arrive in Britain

700,000 BC - Earliest stone tools found in Suffolk

450,000 BC - Appearance of new species (Homo heidelbergensis) at Boxgrove, West Sussex

120,000 BC - Neanderthal people

30,000 BC - Cave art begins; Homo sapiens emerge

20,000 BC - Peak of the last Ice Age

10,000 BC - Earliest house in Britain at Star Carr, Yorks. and open air sites such as Hengistbury Head, Dorset

9000 BC - Temporary hunter camp in tundra landscapes as at Church Lammas, Staines

6500 BC - Britain separated from the continent

4500 BC - Farming and pottery introduced to Britain

4000-3300 BC - Construction of earliest earthworks such as early enclosures and burial chambers

3300-2900 BC - Cursus monuments, chamber tombs and stone circles begin

2900-2200 BC - Beginning of henges and flint mining; Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and Staines/Heathrow complex of ceremonial monuments at their peak

2700 BC - Tools and weapons made from cooper

2200 BC - Beginning of Bronze Age

Some further sources

Darvil, T. (2010) Prehistoric Britain (Routledge World Archaeology)

Hunt, R. (2002) Hidden Depths: an archaeological exploration of Surrey’s Past

Oakley, K.P. et al. (1939) A Survey of the Prehistory of the Farnham District

Pollard, J. ed. (2008) Prehistoric Britain (Blackwell Studies in World Archaeology)

Timms, P. (1980) Flint Implements of the Old Stone Age (Shire Archaeology)

Historic England publications (many intro guides as online PDFs) - historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/

Lithics Assemblages: a guide to processing, analysis and interpretation Bajr Guide 49 (2017) - www.bajr.org/BAJRGuides/49_Lithics/49_Lithics_guide.pdf

Surrey Prehistoric Group - www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/groups/prehistory

(includes lithics reports and fact sheet)

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13

21