I've started this blog because of the object shown here >>>
I had posted it on my flickr site and got 136 hits that first day! I was very surprised.
The object is a hammer stone with three working faces showing wear on all faces and a wonderfully polished area where the user had removed two chunks of flint to make it fit his grip.
It fits my grip comfortably and the two 'hammer' faces are clear of my fingers. I am mainly right-handed.
Unfortunately the hammer stone was found out of context.
We have had a 'fosse touts eaux' [a septic tank] installed and this was in the spoil heap.
The altered areas on the grip are shown below...
the arrows point to the exposed flint, polished by use.
Also use polishing shows on the rough outer surface of the nodule.The two 'hammer' faces are at different angles and show the most wear at the inner and front side of the 'flat' face [visible on the top picture] and the outside and bottom of the angled face. The 'handle' face also appears to have been used and a flake was removed from the top of the hammer, between the two hammer faces.
This also fits comfortably into my hand with the thumb resting down the concave face [visible in the top picture] and the fingers down the convex face [visible left].
The next picture shows the areas of wear on the hammer faces.
1 & 2 ] The areas of greatest wear are between the arrows...the curve following the line of wear from blob to blob.
3] This face on the flat hammer is still sharply defined and appears never to have been struck.
I will return to this object once I have taken some better photos.
