LOT 2985

Farnham Pits Polished Stone Age Tool Collection

NEOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 6,000 B.P.

2 7/8 - 4 1/2 in. (506 grams total, 7.2-11.5 cm).

Comprising: D-section tongue-shaped smoothing stone with legend 'Farnham Pit Dwelling'; polished cleaver with rounded edge, inked legend '507/D Pit XVIII Base 18 v 1935', gummed label and other notations; polished handaxe with narrow butt, inked 'TREEN' legend; old typed listing of pits in the excavation. [3, No Reserve]

Found Farnham circa 1948-1949.
Found during the original official excavations in the Farnham area, Surrey, UK, which were conducted by Harold Falkner (1875-1963) and William Francis Rankine (c.1877-1962), who were instrumental in the excavation works and pit dwellings at sites including Six Bells, Frensham, Tilford, Thursley and Bagshot, and Waverley, amongst others, at and near Farnham in the 1930s and 1940s.
Much of the material is now in the prestigious Farnham museum.
The present part of the collection having been gifted to their good friend and Haselmere Parish Priest, Charles Borelli (c.1914-2000) of Farnham, who was part of the Borelli family from Italy who emigrated from Lake Como in 1828 to set up the Borelli family watch and jewellery business; thence by family descent to his nephew.

Accompanied by an original typed listing annotated by Rankine.

Farnham district is one of the most interesting prehistoric regions in England, and has been visited by a succession of prehistoric peoples from Palaeolithic times onwards. Along the southern slope of the Farnham valley are three gravel terraces, which are famous prehistorically and have yielded large quantities of flint implements and bones of prehistoric animals, notably the mammoth. In prehistoric times, the chalk deposits played an important role in attracting settlers, as they contained rich layers of flint nodules used to make implements. The Farnham Gravels have been an abundant source of Palaeolithic finds, most prominent being hand axes. The axes differ in type, and each type is associated with a cultural phase of the Palaeolithic period. Types similar to these are found in similar deposits in the Somme valley and in many English valley gravels. Flint mining was also carried out by the Neolithic folk. Polished axes and leaf forms, arrowheads and knives, or possibly lance heads, are characteristic of the Neolithic flint work.