Grimes Graves

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View of a seam of Flint in the Grimes Graves excavation. The pit props are modern supports added when the site was excavated

Grimes Graves is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near Brandon in England close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. It was worked between around 3000 BC and 1900 BC, when the growing prevalence of bronze tools rendered its products obsolete.

It extends over an area of some 37 ha (96 acres) and consists of at least 433 shafts dug into the natural chalk to reach seams of flint. The largest shafts are more than 14 m (40 feet) deep and 12 m in diameter at the surface. It has been calculated that more than 1,000 tonnes of chalk had to removed from the larger shafts, taking 20 people around five months, before stone of sufficient quality was reached. An upper 'topstone' and middle 'wallstone' seam of flint was dug through on the way to the deeper third 'floorstone' seam which most interested the miners.

In order to remove the chalk efficiently, the ancient miners built wooden platforms and ladders as they dug downwards and piled the spoil next to the shaft opening or dumped it into exhausted shafts. The landscape around Grimes Graves has a characteristic pockmarked appearance caused by the infilled shafts. This is probably what inspired the later Saxon inhabitants of the area to name it after their god Grim (more commonly known as Woden). The shafts were not investigated, however and their purpose not understood, until the nineteenth century.

The miners used picks fashioned from the antler of red deer. They probably used wooden shovels, although this is only inferred by analogy with other flint mines with better conditions for the preservation of artefacts. Analysis of the antlers (Clutton-Brock 1984: 25) has shown that the miners were mainly right-handed and favoured the left antlers out of those that were naturally shed seasonally by the deer.

Once they had reached the flint, the miners dug lateral galleries outwards at the bottom, following the flint. The largest shafts yielded as much as 60 tons of flint nodules, which were brought to the surface and roughly worked into shape on site. The blank tools were then possibly traded elsewhere for final finishing. It is estimated that 60 tons of flint could have produced as many as 10,000 of the hand axes, which were the mines' main product. Extrapolation across the site suggests that Grimes Graves may have produced around 16-18,000 tonnes of flint during its lifespan.

One unproductive shaft (pit 15) appears to have been turned into a shrine. An altar of flint lumps had been built with a chalk bowl at its base and antler picks piled around. In front of the altar had been placed a Venus figurine of chalk, a chalk phallus and some balls, also of chalk. It may have been an attempt to ensure that the mine remained productive or 'fertile' after this particular shaft turned out to have little flint in it. However, it is possible that the Venus figurine and the phallus are modern fakes – there is a lack of primary evidence surrounding their recovery in 1939, and rumours circulated at the time of the excavation that they were planted in order to deceive Armstrong, the archaeologist overseeing the dig.(Piggot 1986: 190, Longworth et al 1991: 103-105).

Such a large industry would have required supporting infrastructure. Assuming no more than two shafts were open at any one time, around 120 red deer would have needed to be bred and managed nearby, in order to provide a steady supply of antler as well as skin, food and other products that the miners would require.

As with the difficult location of the Langdale axe industry, it has been suggested that Neolithic peoples placed great emphasis on acquiring their flint axes from hard-to-reach locations and that such effort gave the tools greater significance. Earlier flint mines in Britain such as Cissbury in Sussex did not approach the size and complexity of the operation at Grimes Graves and it is likely that tools from Grimes Graves were deemed to be in some way important over a wide area.

Grimes Graves is in the care of English Heritage. It is open to the public and it is possible to descend a 9 metre ladder and explore one of the shafts. This is the only shaft of its kind open to the public in Britain.

[edit] References

Barber, M., Field D., Topping, P, (1999)The Neolithic Flint Mines of England, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England / English Heritage, ISBN 1-873592-41-8

Piggott, S., (1986) 'Early British craftsmen' Antiquity LX No 230, Pages 189-192.

Clutton-Brock, J., (1984) Excavations at Grimes Graves Norfolk 1972-1976 Fascicule 1: Neolithic Antler Picks From Grimes Graves, Norfolk, And Durrington Walls, Wiltshire: A Biometrical Analysis, British Museum Press, ISBN 0-7141-1374-3

Longworth, I., Herne, A., Varndell, G. and Needham, S., (1991) Excavations at Grimes Graves Norfolk 1972-1976 Fascicule 3: Shaft X: Bronze Age Flint, Chalk and Metalworking, British Museum Press, ISBN 0-7141-1396-4