The Mesolithic period
Fin Cop sits atop the steep sided dales of the River Wye and
there are numerous natural caves within the cliffs below that
have been utilised by humans since the Upper Palaeolithic period (during the last Ice Age).
Caves such as Shacklow, Old Woman’s House and Ravencliffe have all yielded Upper Palaeolithic stone tools and are all
within 3km of Fin Cop. These cave sites continued in
use into and throughout the Mesolithic period after the retreat of the ices sheets from Northern Britain. Excavations by
Major Harris at Shacklow and Demon’s Dale yielded Mesolithic
artefacts from within the rock shelters.
On the hilltop itself, the site was used during
the Mesolithic period as a place to obtain chert and begin the process
of primary chipping of tools. Fifty test-pits produced over 2000 chipped stone artefacts, of which only five were not made from the locally outcropping chert. This large assemblage is consistent with a Mesoltihic date, and the majority of the assemblage is from the primary stage in the core reduction sequence (dressing newly-quarried raw material into workable cores). This is a highly significant
and very rare discovery, which indicates the reliance that Mesolithic
groups had on locally available materials. For the part of the
Mesolithic that these tools represent, there is an implication
of a strategy of self-reliance and a close relationship to a smaller
territory where flint did not naturally occur. In the harsh conditions
of the Early Mesolithic, groups would have travelled over considerable
distances in order to obtain resources. During this time flint
would have likely been imported for use from flint-bearing regions
such as Lincolnshire and the Yorkshire Wolds. Change in the climate
and landscape would have allowed the adoption of change in the
lifestyles and economic practises of the Mesolithic peoples, and
Fin Cop perhaps represents an early raw material site, a hilltop that may have held special significance.
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