Ancient [Flint] 'Weapons Factory' Discovered

[Melvadius]

Leicester University have just completed excavation of what is potentially a very important Meolithic flint tool manufacturing and possible settlement site in a period when there were no real settled communities in Britain. Consequently in the period little in the way of physical remains of human activity remains except for the occasional find of flint or even less tangible traces of structures found in soil:

 

From the Leicester Mercury at:

 

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news...il/article.html

 

Ancient weapons factory unearthed by University of Leicester team

 

Archeologists have unearthed an 8,000-year-old weapons factory.

 

The find, near Melton, is the biggest ever mid-Stone Age discovery in Leicestershire, with fingernail-sized flint pieces, burned animal bones and evidence of tents.

The bonus for the University of Leicester team is the site has not been churned up by ploughs, like most county land has.

 

It has remained undisturbed since the time before Britain became an island.

 

The dig took place prior to the construction of a new estate in Loughborough Road, Asfordby.

 

Developers Jelson called in the university team to remove any interesting artefacts from the site before building work started.

 

The dig has just come to an end and the team has revealed its findings.

 

Archaeologist Wayne Jarvis, who has led the dig, said: "What we've collected are a large number of very early flint artefacts. It's an incredibly rare find.

 

"We know from the shape of the flints that they are from the mesolithic period