University of Southampton archaeologist James Dilley provided six hours of tuition to nine volunteers from the Heritage Society. The volunteers learned about the structure of flint, its flaws and impact points, and during the day produced scrapers, saws, arrow heads and axe heads.
The new skills the volunteers learned will allow them to display flint knapping at community events.
Stone Age axes, arrow heads, tools and chippings have been found in Whitehill and Bordon, Oakhanger, Longmoor and Kingsley. Dating back to the Old Stone Age (30,000 to 10,000 years ago), a hand axe has been found in Kingsley. Meanwhile, from the Middle Stone Age, thousands of flint tools discovered at The Warren, near Oakhanger, showed the continued presence of Stone Age people in the area in 10,000BC. This Mesolithic chipping floor was uncovered in 1953, when it was described as “unusually prolific” by Surrey archaeologist WF Rankine.
The archaeologist reported 85,000 odd pieces of flaked flint debris were found, of which 3,000 were finished tools.
Meanwhile, axes and leaf-shaped arrowheads from the New Stone Age, around 4000BC to 2300BC, have been found at Longmoor.
Dr Chris Wain, chairman of the Heritage Society, said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for local enthusiasts to get hands on knowledge about a long-forgotten craft. It will enable the society to demonstrate this skill to future generations, forming a strong link to the archaeological finds from Slab Common, The Warren and Palmers Ball. Here early man worked flints to make tools more than 6,000 years ago.”
The next evening meeting of the Woolmer Forest Heritage Society is on Wednesday, March 7, at 7.30pm, at the Forest Community Centre, in Pinehill Road, where Dr Martyn Allen will give an illustrated talk on hunting and finding food in Roman times (see woolmerforest.org.uk).