10. Flints from Aughertree Fell

Aughertree Fell is an area of upland limestone in north Cumbria, overlooking the Solway plain. In recent years, a possible causewayed enclosure has been identified from aerial photographs at Green How (Horne et al. 2001).

A small number of flints have been reported as surface finds from cart tracks in the vicinity of Green Howe, and thus in the same general area as the putative causewayed enclosure. These flints are shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19: Flints from Aughertree Fell

These flints appear to be predominantly chalk flints of Yorkshire origin, which comprise 10 of the 15 artefacts shown. Of the remaining five, four resemble Irish Sea beach pebble flint, and one is of black chert. It is difficult to draw conclusions from so small a sample, but it is interesting to note that presumed Yorkshire chalk flint accounts for the same proportion of artefacts as on Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age sites in eastern Cumbria (Cherry and Cherry 1987a) and in the Craven District of North Yorkshire (Cherry 1998). Lithic scatters so far recorded on the coastal plain of the Solway Firth are similar to those in south-west Cumbria ( e.g. Bewley 1986). Chalk flint is present, but in very small quantities.

The limited evidence so far available does not suggest a gradual fall-off in availability of chalk flint between eastern and western areas of Cumbria. On the contrary, chalk flint appears either to have been sufficiently available to be the preferred raw material for toolmaking, or hardly available at all.

Further study is needed to obtain a better sample of material.

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