Casgliadau Arlein

Antler tool utilizing the shed beam and brow tine of a red deer antler. Shallow scoops above the base of the bez tine show it to have been removed using an axe and further chop marks are visible near the broken end of the beam and along the shaft. The point of the brow tine is blackened and highly polished on three sides with a distinct facet on the outer edge. Antler picks are virtually impossible to date typologically, Neolithic examples are known from Grimes Graves and Durrington Walls (Clutton-Brock, 1984) and they continue to be used into the Iron Age and Roman periods at sites such as Dinorben (Gardner and Savory, 1964) and Coygan Camp (Wainwright, 1967).