The Waite Nuneaton Private Collection
Anne Graf, 2011. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000402. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Anne Graf unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
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Anne
Graf
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 1067
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000402
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
The Waite Project constitutes a record of potentially-Palaeolithic lithic surface finds from the Nuneaton area, Warwickshire, retrieved in fieldwalking by the late Mr Ron Waite of Nuneaton over many decades, and kept in his own private collection between 2005 and 2008.
These finds have been important in emphasising the surprising density of the Palaeolithic occupation of this region, and the extensive and continuing use of quartzite raw material to supplement the often limited and poor quality flint, first transported into the area by the Anglian ice in MIS (Marine Isotope Stage) 12, from about 480kya (thousand years ago). The Project material probably postdates this glaciation and may predate MIS 6, about 180kya, when Britain seems to have been unoccupied until MIS 3, about 60kya, when Neanderthal people returning to the region continued to use quartzite for their tools.
Mr Waite's private collection comprised over 400 items, which he made available to the creator of the dataset for study and recording between 2005 and 2008. This dataset catalogues the collection as of that period, predominantly of quartzite raw material, with some flint and a few andesitic pieces.
In the dataset a Catalogue of the project material is supplemented by a Discussion and Bibliography, by copies of Mr Waite's Fieldwork Maps, by Indices of artefact types, raw materials and distributions, and by detailed written, photographic and drawn Records of the 158 items selected as being of clear or potential Palaeolithic interest.
The Project aims to make this record publicly available, both through this Archaeology Data Service and via Warwickshire County Historic Environment Record; and to draw attention to the remaining potential of the greater part of Mr Waite's finds in earlier donations to museums and from his ongoing fieldwork. To this end an introductiory paper appeared in 'Lithics: Journal of the Lithics Studies Society' 25, 2004 and a further summary note in 2011.
References
Graf, A. 2004: "A Cause for Wonder": preliminary observations on further Palaeolithic surface finds by Ron Waite from around Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Lithics: Journal of the Lithic Studies Society 25, 78-105.
Graf, A. 2011: The Waite Private Collection (2005-2008) of Palaeolithic Artefacts from around Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK: further observations. Lithics: Journal of the Lithic Studies Society 32 (forthcoming).
