Langdale Axe Factory forum 5 room
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Langdale Axe Factory

Cave O' Flakes

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I'm working from memory and so may not be 100% correct but I think the cave was thought to be contemporary with the axe production because of the flake scars on the walls and debris found on the excavated floor. This implies that the cave was worked using the same methods as the axes - stone hammers as opposed to metal tools.

There's a couple of photos in Bradley & Edmonds book that show the cave, one was taken by Clare Fell (I think) during her original survey in the late 40's the other was a photograph taken by Bradley. The Fell photo shows the top of the cave just poking up over the scree, the second photo shows the fully exposed cave. What the photos illustrate are the amount of material that has been disturbed/removed by scree runners and 'treasure seekers' during the intervening time. It's really quite disturbing to think of all of the material that has been lost over a relatively short period of time.

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What the photos illustrate are the amount of material that has been disturbed/removed by scree runners and 'treasure seekers' during the intervening time. It's really quite disturbing to think of all of the material that has been lost over a relatively short period of time.
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Hence why there are signs now saying please do not go onto the scree...
*ahem* TE...

The photograph I mention is not in Bradley's book, it is in a field survey by P. Claris called The Neolithic Quarries and Axe Factory Sites of Great Langdale and Scafell Pike.
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 55 1989