Mike Parker Pearson writes: ...another unusual discovery was of tool marks in the chalk sides of the two postholes. These were best preserved in the larger of the two postholes, and a 3D representation using image-based modelling shows them very clearly. They appear to have been made by a wide, curved blade, mounted in an adze-like manner and brought downwards against the side of the pit. The tool marks indicate that the blade was at least 10 cm across. It was also relatively thin, able to cut into the chalk beneath a slight overhang where a fatter blade could not have been swung.
It seems unlikely that these marks were produced by a flint or stone adze or axe; perhaps this is evidence for use of a copper axehead mounted as an adze.
Since the building of the henge bank was completed by 2480–2450 cal BC ( 95% probability), it is 95.7% probable that this was anywhere up to a century before the first Beaker burials in 2475–2360 cal BC (95% probability), from which we have Britain’s earliest copper artefacts.
This raises the possibility that copper artefacts, or even metallurgy, were introduced from continental Europe before the arrival of the Beaker inhumation rite.
More in PAST from the Prehistoric Society - page 3:
http://www.prehistoricsociety.org/files/PAST_86_for_web.pdf
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