Some Supposed Gun Flint Sites

Abstract

In 1909 I found, near the crest of the North Downs above Eynsford, several unshapely pieces of flint showing signs of having been flaked.The flint is spicular and of a pale honey colour, some pieces quite unpatinated, but others very slightly patinated and with occasional flecks of siliceous high glaze. Judging from the appearance of the cortex, the flint has come from the clay-with-flints which caps the chalk in this neighbourhood.Practically every piece of honey coloured flint to be found here bears a bulb or a bulb hollow, and none but the honey-coloured flint has been worked.The site is in a narrow strip of woodland about 20 ft. deep, and just below the crest of the North Downs. It is in the bank of “hill-wash” formed by these trees that rabbits have burrowed and thrown up the flints under description. These flints have been shown to several collectors but the shapes are so crude and, apparently, purposeless that I could get no suggestions as to their use, or information about comparable finds.