THE MIDDLE STONE AGE (Mesolithic) - The Archers’ Campsite 9500 Years Ago

Our Middle Stone Age ancestors made a temporary camp on Hengistbury Head. It was still a hill inland overlooking a river valley and the sea was some miles distant. They ambushed animals and wildfowl in the river valley with bows and flint tipped arrows.

The equipment was more sophisticated than those of the Earlier Hunter-Gatherers. Hundreds of flint tools were found during excavations (1979-1984). Flint was struck (knapped) in a very precise way, using hammers (rounded pebbles/ antler or wood), to make sharp flakes. These flakes were then fashioned into knives, saws, scrapers and arrow tips. The hunters set arrow tips into wooden shafts and bound and glued them with sinew (animal tendon) and Pine resin.

Carcasses were probably taken to the open-air camp, skinned and butchered. Fire provided warmth and light and could be used for cooking, heating water, and drying. Fire was made presumably by sparking flint against iron pyrites or by spinning a hardwood in a softwood base, in the presence of tinder (e.g. thistle down).

Flint tip (sinew bound)   Flight Feather