c.2200-1600BCE: Grimes Graves

From the Heritage Trail website -

Our Saxon ancestors, on surveying this strange pot-marke heath land, would refer to the site as ‘The devils holes of the god Grim’, and that is how the unusual name of ‘Grimes Graves’ arose for these Stone Age, backfilled flint mines. Flint was an important commodity to those early peoples as it provided a hard, but workable, material for the production of tools and weapons. The flint nodules, having a glass-like fracture quality, could be ‘knapped’ (chipped) to give a fine, razor sharp cutting edge.

It was probably around 2100BC that the Grimes Graves mines were first opened, and they consisted of a tapering vertical shaft that would be cut to various depths, maybe as deep as 30-40ft (10m-12.5m), with surface openings anything between 13ft to 26ft (4m-8m). By the time production stopped, there were some 360 shafts of this type, which have since backfilled to give the landscape its distinct crater-like surface.

There are three flint seams running through the chalk strata in this area, and the shafts contained these at roughly the top, middle and bottom levels. However, it was the bottom layer of high quality flint that was the main object of their arduous labours. Once the shaft had been dug to the base level seam, the flint would be mined by working out from the centre of the shaft to form a series of radiating galleries. As the shafts were in very close proximity to each other, the galleries would eventually join up with adjacent galleries, forming a labyrinth of narrow cramped tunnels.

The prime mining tool, used in the abstraction of the flint, was the bone antler of the Red Deer, which the animals shed each year. These antlers are very hard, and when trimmed make a very efficient right-angled axe. An interesting fact arising from Stone Age use of the antlers is that they appear to have had a good understanding of resource management, because if too many deer were killed for food, it would have had a detrimental effect on the antler stock in the following year. It has been estimated that a herd of 120 deer would have facilitated sufficient antler bone to allow one, maybe two, pits to have been opened every year. Mining at the site appears to have ceased around 1650BC.

Now managed by English Heritage, one of the excavated shafts at Grimes Graves has been opened to the public. With a protective entrance building covering the site, and a steel ladder allowing secure access to the shaft floor, it is possible to see the top and middle flint seam quite clearly in the shaft walls. At the bottom of the shaft the radiating galleries have been illuminated to allow visitors to see into them, but access has been restricted for obvious safety reasons.

I found the whole experience very different, and quite thought-provoking as I tried to imagine our primitive ancestors on their hands and knees, scraping around in the dark depths of this inhospitable ‘hole-in-the-ground’ for hours each day. They must have wanted the flint pretty badly because it would have taken some major enticement to get me down there more than once!

From wikipedia -

Grimes Graves is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near BrandonEngland 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. in

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.

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

From Britain Express’ website -

Grimes Graves is one of the most fascinating Neolithic sites in Britain. Despite its name, it is not a grave, or burial place, but a flint mine worked between about 2200 and 2500 BC.

Located in open heath country near Thetford Forest, Grimes Graves consists of over 350 hollows in the ground marking the location of the former mine shafts.

Some of the shafts are sunk as deep as 30 feet below the surface – a remarkable accomplishment when you consider that the Neolithic miners used antlers for picks and animal shoulder-blades for shovels. On one of the antler picks found at Grimes Graves archaeologists found a miner’s fingerprint – still intact after 4000 years!

The miners sunk their shafts to find seams of flint for making axes whch were highly prized tools, and were traded up and down the length of the British Isles. When they had reached the flint seams the miners dug horizontal galleries to follow the flint deposits.

As each shaft was worked out, the rubbish from the next shaft was dumped into it. The miners must have descended the shafts by means of ladders or steps cut into the sides.

Light for the miners was provided by lamps they made by scooping a hollow into a lump of chalk and filling the hollow with animal fat or oil. You can still see soot stains left on the roofs of the galleries by the burning oil from lamps. Strangely, no remains of food or pottery vessels has been found in the mines, leading to the conclusion that the miners must have climbed up out of the mines to take their meal breaks in the fresh air!

The most memorable discovery at Grimes Graves is what appears to be a fertlity shrine set up in an abandonned shaft. The shaft is quite short – we can assume that the miners failed to hit the seam of flint they were after and gave up on further digging.

But before they quit the gallery they carved out a ledge, or altar, upon which was found a godess figurine of chalk, either very obese or pregnant. Beside the female figure was a phallus of chalk. Surrounding both was a pile of antler picks.

The accepted reading of this shrine is that the miners, disappointed at their failure to find the flint they needed, made a religious offering to the godess to ensure the continued “fertility” of the mine. As is usual in historical investigation, there is a second interpretation which considers the shrine to be a much later addition.

One pit is open to the public, and you can descend a 30ft deep shaft and view 7 radiating galleries. In the summer you can also witness demonstrations of flint knapping (forming tools by carefully chipping away at a piece of flint).

Other Neolithic flint mines can be visited at Cissbury, Blackpatch, and Harrow Hill, all in Sussex, and Great Langdale in Cumbria.

From English Heritage’s website -

Grime’s Graves is the only Neolithic flint mine open to visitors in Britain. A grassy lunar landscape of over 400 shafts, pits, quarries and spoil dumps, they were first named Grim’s Graves – meaning the pagan god Grim’s quarries, or ‘the Devil’s holes’ – by the Anglo- Saxons. It was not until one of them was excavated in 1870 that they were found to be flint mines dug over 5,000 years ago, during the later Neolithic and early Bronze Ages.
Ceremony at Grime’s Graves, reconstruction drawing by Peter Dunn. Late Neolithic. (c) English Heritage

What the prehistoric miners sought here was the fine quality jet-black flint ‘floorstone’, which occurs some nine metres below surface level. This was prized as an easily ‘knapped’ material for axes and other tools – and much later elsewhere for well-sparking flintlock muskets. Digging with red-deer antler picks, they sank shafts from which radiated gallery-tunnels, following the seams of flint. Today visitors can descend 9 metres (30 ft) by ladder into one excavated shaft, an unforgettable experience. The small exhibition area illustrates the history of this fascinating site. Set amid the distinctive Breckland heath landscape, Grime’s Graves is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the home of a wide variety of plants and fauna.