THIS IS FINDON — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

THE DISCOVERY OF CHARRED HUMAN BONES

Map Reference TQ 114 083

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

The Findon area has been inhabited since prehistoric days and I thought it was about time that I documented something about the flint mines the Neolithic people have left littering the Findon countryside.   It will give some idea of the flint mining industry carried on in our hills.  I am not an archaeologist and, therefore, the explanation will be simplified and hopefully more interesting than technical!  

A non-technical fact worth relating (and perhaps astounding) is that around 4,100 BC there is evidence that flints were mined at Church Hill in Findon.... about 900 years before anyone even thought about building Stonehenge.  

The Neolithic was a period of prolific activity in the Findon area, when enclosures and monuments were being built, ditches cut, large areas cleared and flint was extracted from the ground.

I will go back to 1932, when Mr C.A.E. Hartridge of Findon Place and the owner of the land on Church Hill gave permission for a dig to commence on the hillside he owned. 

It was in the chilly month of December 1932 that John H. Pull and his helpers first ascended Church Hill above St. John the Baptist Church and made very tentative exploratory excavations and began their survey of the prehistoric flint mine site.   I do not know if he realised at the time or not but the duration of his excavations were to continue for the next twenty years, until 1952.

John Henry Pull was born not far from Findon, in Arundel in 1899.   He served in the army, he worked in the Post Office and his name became inextricably linked with the downland of Findon because he had an unusual hobby. This initially involved the antiquities of Blackpatch Hill between 1922 -1932 and the excavation of the clusters of prehistoric flint mines in the area, (TQ 094 089),    Later the amateur archaeologist spent many hours of his spare time toiling on the slopes of Cissbury Ring and Church Hill above the village.   This was before his untimely murder that can be read about under The Murder of a Findon Explorer.

John has left us a wonderful legacy of his excavations on Church Hill.   He has confirmed that they definitely establish the fact that the flint mining industry on Church Hill was similar in character to those which have been proved to have existed on the summit of Cissbury Ring and Black Patch Hill (and elsewhere on our downland).   This conjures a picture immediately to my mind of the Neolithic miners trudging from one site to the other in search of seams of flint to fashion into implements with which to trade!

John took on an immense task in 1933 to attempt to open one of the Neolithic filled-in flint mines in the group occupying the south-eastern summit of Church Hill.

As is usually the case with downland flint mine fields, the pits were in such close proximity that the space left between the bore of the shafts was not sufficient to take the amount of refuse thrown up when later sinkings were worked.   Consequently, the worked out shafts to earlier mines soon became filled with waste material removed from newly dug areas by the ancient miners.

The mine shaft that John chose to excavate was a depression in the ground.   It was saucer-shaped and 18 ft. in diameter and 2 ft. in depth.   This was to become known as Mine Shaft No. 1.   Together with his helpers, he began to clear its debris infilling and the pit resulted later to be 17 ft. across at the mouth and  descended 16 ft. into the chalk.

Amongst the excavated rubble, John and his workers came across a number of flint implements.   There was also some charcoal residue among the number of mining tools fashioned from red deer antlers, including an antler pick (see John's sketch below).  This had obviously given such good service to its miner-owner that it had been finally abandoned.

There was also an antler from a slain deer (a large portion of the skull was still attached).   It appears that it had been originally intended to prepare this antler as a useful primitive miner's pick — but for some unknown reason the intention had not been carried through — and it had been discarded.  See John's little sketch shows below. 

As well as a number of antler tools in the mine shaft debris, there was a very fine mallet and two punches along with some good flint implements.   

There were also three items of pottery in Mine Shaft No. 1.  The first was a large, thick, round-bottomed bowl.   Needless to say, this had not survived the centuries as whole but was represented by various fragments of the rim and body.   It was fascinatingly incised over the whole surface by impressions made by some long forgotten female's finger-tips — was she the maker of the bowl.... or just called in to carry out the decoration?    See John's sketch —

The fragments of the second vessel indicated that it had a flat base and was originally a drinking beaker.  This had been ornamented with areas of horizontal and parallel lines interposed with chevron zones.  The decoration had been deeply cut with some sharp pointed instrument of the day by its maker.

The third vessel was of thick brownish ware.   The remaining segments indicated no attempt at all of any ornamentation.   Alas there were insufficient pieces to enable identification of the shape of the vessel and to attempt any reconstruction.

At the same time as, or very shortly after these broken potsherds had been deposited in Mine Shaft No. 1, the pit had been selected for some reason as the site for the interment of a human body.

This took the form of a burial following cremation.   The remains of a burnt skeleton, together with a small quantity of charcoal (gathered up from the funeral pyre) had been deposited (together with the blade of an flint axe) within a 9 inch tall urn  — see John's sketch of the reconstructed pottery vessel and the flint axe enclosed within it —

Yet another second flint axe (very like the above) was deposited beside the rim of the urn, together with a tiny bone tool.   This appears to have been of some significance as the miniature tool appears to have been the very one utilised in making the decoration on the urn itself. 

The urn when discovered was, unfortunately, shattered into many pieces, this being due to the settling of the infilling of the pit.  The date of the urn appeared to indicate it was of the fashion of the Bronze age.

This mysterious burial in Mine Shaft No. 1 on Church Hill was accompanied by many fragments of broken bones and the teeth of at least two oxen, together with the usual flint implements.   The shaft also produced some portions of a Romano-British vessel of blue provincial ware.       

It was apparent that the Neolithic miners had discovered a fine seam of flint at the base of Mine Shaft No. 1 before abandoning the site and filling in resulted.  When John Pull and his workers reached the base of the shaft, soundings were taken from the walls of undeveloped galleries immediately leading off the pit.   These soundings determined with certainty the existence of other main galleries passing through the chalk from neighbouring pits and were within a few feet of where the twentieth century explorers stood.    The team had eventually arrived at the flint mine workings of the Neolithic men of the Findon area.

Continue if you would like to read about John's excavations in 1933 in Digging on Church Hill. 

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.