English: A possible scraper, made by trimming a large flint flake that has been struck from a prepared core. The large striking-platform and pronounced undulations on the ventral surface suggesting a strike by a hard hammer. The piece appears to have come off in the correct shape, and received no further trimming, although a small flake appears to have been removed on the ventral side from the striking platform- perhaps this came away during the initial strike. The dorsal surface displays numerous negative scars, of earlier trimmings of the core, all apparently irregular. The whole piece has a white or light grey patina, indicating the growth of a new cortex. The fact that there is no secondary working on this piece suggests that it may be merely a large waste flake from a core; an idea which is further suggested by the small areas of remaining cortex (approx. 3% of the total surface) at the opposite end from the striking platform. The uneven edges back up this hypothesis, as neither is straight enough to be used as a decent scraper, although one appears to have received some wear in the distant past- these small wear flake-scars are covered by the white proto-cortex layer.
The crude nature of the piece suggests an Upper Palaeolithic date (c.10,000 B.C.).