On a recent trip to the woods with my family, I stumbled upon this beautiful piece of worked flint.
I have found many pieces of worked flint over the years, but none as beautiful as this. This microlith has been re touched on both sides creating serrated edges (technical name “microdenticulate”). The craftsmanship is unbelievably exquisite, the pictures really do not do it justice.
It was found on a sloped path and after foot and weather erosion slowly it worked its way out. Obviously because of this it has little context, so dating it is hard. Given its style and size though, as well as comparing to other examples found in the UK, its most likely from the Mesolithic, or the Neolithic. It could also date from the bronze age, but such fine flint work was in fast decline by then.
Finds like this are not to uncommon in Britain, but they serve as a reminder not only of our ancestors craftsmanship, but also our connection to the land.
There is no part of these isles that has not been shaped somehow by man, nor indeed no man that has not been shaped by it. Strewn across this island are millions of small reminders of who we were and where we come from. The very land itself is a book of my history. The medieval ridge and furrows still lie just a few feet beneath modern field. Ancient trackways carved by the first farmers for driving cattle are still walked by the descendents of those that made them.
The very soil of these lands was nourished by the blood and bones of my ancestors and shaped by their industry. And in turn this land served and nourished me, and one day I will return to her divine bosom, from whence I was born.
To me this land is not merely a place on a map, a flag, or a name in a book, it is a temple crafted from the blood, bones and efforts of my ancestors. It is truly hallowed ground being as it is constructed of both the ancestral and nature divine.
To England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the four pillars of my temple and to those before me who constructed them, I vow to thee,
I will NEVER give it over to another, and give my oath to rally against all who would defile her sacred body or wish harm upon her children.