NEOLITHIC CHIPPING-SITES 8l 



that at Blackton in Teesdale, not only in the material used, 

 but in the implements which occur. While I endeavoured to 

 show that the fell implements were carried by migrating tribes 

 from the south, bringing with them bundles of long and 

 slender symmetrically formed flakes, and gathering up chert 

 on the way ; the coast implements were on the contrary all 

 manufactured on the spot. This is proved by the much 

 greater quantity of flakes, minute splinters, cores or nuclei, 

 and unworked nodules, hammerstones and other debris of the 

 flint workshop. On the Blackton Beck site only five or six 

 cores occurred, and one hammerstone, while the unworked 

 flint nodules were entirely absent. 



The material used by the coast chippers consists of flint 

 taken exclusively from the small rounded nodules out of the 

 boulder clay which are sparingly found on the sea shore, and 

 great skill is shown in working up the hard and often splintery 

 material, especially in the case of the arrowheads. The coast 

 series most resembles the Neolithic remains found on chipping 

 sites in various parts of Scotland. 



Whether the coast sites are older or newer than those on 

 the fells I shall not attempt to say ; they may be contemporary, 

 but at any rate there was no intercourse or exchange of 

 materials between the two. 



Flint saws are found on the fells, but I have found no trace 

 of them on the coast sites. 



Neolithic Remains on the Northumberland Coast. 



Chipped flints appear to be much more sparingly distributed 

 along the Northumberland coast than in the southern part of 

 the county of Durham. They are practically absent from that 

 part stretching from the mouth of the Tyne northwards to 

 Whitley Bay. Opposite St. Mary's Island traces were noticed, 

 but the coast seems to have receded much in recent times. 

 From here northwards we find a long stretch of blown sand 

 comparable to that found between Hartlepool and Crimden 

 Dene, which effectively conceals any chipping sites which 

 may exist. 



