Grimes Graves
Grimes Graves is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near Brandon in England close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. It was worked between around circa 3000 BC and circa 1900 BC, although production may have continued well into the bronze and Iron Ages (an
d later) owing to the low cost of flint compared with metals. Flint was much in demand for making stone axes in the Neolithic period. Flint nodules were always in demand for other uses, such as for building and as strikers for muskets.
The scheduled monument 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 2,000 tonnes of chalk had to be removed from the larger shafts, taking 20 people around five months, before stone of sufficient quality was reached. An upper 'top stone' and middle 'wall stone' seam of flint was dug through on the way to the deeper third 'floor stone' seam which most interested the miners.
Customs and Beliefs
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 Leslie Armstrong, the archaeologist overseeing the dig. (Piggot 1986: 190, Longworth et al 1991: 103-105).
Neolithic Infrastructure
Such a large industry may have required supporting infrastructure. Assuming no more than two shafts were open at any one time, around 120 red deer may 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. Alternatively, the mines may have been worked intermittently by local farmers, as happened in many early metal mines during the Bronze Age and the later Iron Age.
Earlier flint mines in Britain such as Cissbury in Sussex were just as important as Grimes Graves, and there were many very local sources of flint which were exploited on the down lands. However, its is probably relevant that Grimes Graves were close to the very rich soils of the fenland, and forest clearance here would rely on local products.
There was also extensive farming settlement during the Bronze Age, known from middens that infill the mouths of many Neolithic mineshafts. Animal bones from these middens show that the Bronze Age people kept cattle, which they milked, sheep and a few pigs. They also grew barley, wheat and peas.