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Prehistory
The
Cissbury Flint Mines
Section
through a Neolithic Flint Mine
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Flint
found on the ground has hairline cracks and is often too brittle to be
worked, so underground sources were invaluable to Neolithic people.
Flint miners dug shafts up to fifty feet deep, with several galleries
opening out at the bottom. Each worked-out shaft was filled with rubble
dug out from the next one, preserving the old workings from collapse.
This was a special gift for archaeologists over five thousand years
later. The hollows where the shafts were filled can still be seen on
the surface. Archaeologists cleared out the loose chalk and were
readily able to enter the mines. An underground world was brought to
light which could have been left by the miners only yesterday.
The
shafts were dug out with shovels made from the shoulder blades of oxen.
Picks were made from deer antlers. The miners used lamps carved from
chalk and lit small fires at the bottom of the shafts. These have all
been discovered, along with lines scratched on the chalk wall to keep a
tally of the flints dug out. One shaft revealed haunting scratched
images of a deer and an ox.
It
was dangerous work. At least one skeleton found by archaeologists shows
how the galleries could collapse, with little hope of escape. On the
surface, the flints were worked on site and an enormous quantity of
chippings were discarded down the slope nearby.
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Cissbury
Ring
The
Iron Age Hill Fort, also showing Neolithic Flint Mines
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