| Description | Several small blades of `batter back' type, found in 1914 on moors above Fly Flats. They were classified by R.A.Smith (Br.Mus.) as Palaeolithic. O.S. unable to obtain better siting evidence and locate whereabouts of the flints, during field investigation in 1960. Note finds of similar material on Warley Moor (PRN 3809). Finds of Palaeolithic material are rare in West Yorkshire. Drawing a maximum limit for the Devensian glaciation is difficult in this region. Calder valley was largely ice free (see PRN's 3812, 3813, 3814), but is is more difficult to determine the maximum ice margin in the upland areas of W. Yorks. The area was probably clear of Devensian ice by c.10000, even 11000 B.C. and it is possible that this would have allowed time for the migration of a very late Upper Palaeolithic culture into recently deglaciated areas, as occurred, for example, in the Creswell Crags area (Derbyshire). A probable climatic amelioration (c. 10900 10300) is suggested by fossil insect evidence (See W.Yorks Survey, p.75) and it is possible that during these few hundred years, or in the millennium following the general improvement in climate after c.10000 B.C., hunters preserving a very late Upper Palaeolithic tradition may have found the West Yorkshire uplands a worthwhile source of game, particularly in summer. No further information. Cited grid ref. is very uncertain. |