​ROBIN DOWELL

FINDINGS

flint, beech, ebony

 

Documenting the shift in perspective we experience dependent on our environment and situation, this piece was conceived during months of obsessional neolithic flint-hunting on the same site in West Penwith, Cornwall.

 

The pale shards, on ebony, were found in the light of the full-moon on a winter solstice.

 

The dark flints, on beech wood, were discovered at midday on the following summer solstice.

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The site of these findings has continued to resonate, and while it is in the heart of a granite landscape, reliably reveals flint shards from our early history. From microliths to scrapers, cores to transverse arrowheads, the path of these artefacts is traditionally attributed to overland trade and the salvage of sea-flints. Developing a field trip for Groundwork, I believe that a third possibility exists, and that these were sourced at a nearby coastal SSSI. This latter site is of national geological significance, and includes head deposits with high facies variation. The pebbles here are believed to have been carried by ice floes.