INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 165 
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Fig. 12. Distribution of worked and burnt flint 
larger and less blade-like than those from the 
interior, with less frequent platform edge abrasion 
and more frequent hinge fractures and linear or 
punctiform butts. The assemblage from the primary 
ditch fill is distinguished by its technology as well as 
by the near-absence from it of burnt material. 
While more blade-like than those of the ditch, 
‘the flake proportions of the material from the 
interior features still fall at the broader end of the 
range for earlier or middle Neolithic industries 
(Healey and Robertson-Mackay 1983, table 11). 
There is a marked contrast with, for example, the 
dominance of blade and narrow flake production in 
the industry from the inner ditch of the Maiden 
Castle causewayed enclosure (Edmonds and 
Bellamy 1991). While the reasons for this may have 
been partly functional, the heavily-flawed raw 
material used at Whitesheet Hill may have been 
partly responsible. 
The high frequency of serrated pieces among 
the retouched forms is matched in other broadly 
contemporary industries (Healey and Robertson- 
Mackay 1983, table 9). The wide range of blanks on 
which they were made, exemplified by L23-L25 
(Figure 11), is rarely so. In most industries serrated 
pieces were made on straight-edged blades or blade- 
like flakes, a choice of blank which has prompted 
the suggestion that they were mounted serially as 
elements of composite knives or sickles. This would 
scarcely be possible with such pieces as L23-L24. 
It is noteworthy that in the Whitesheet 
collection edge gloss, a frequent feature of serrated 
