Truro EDC incised slate disc:

Observations on attempting to reproduce it.

Graham Hill.

Introduction
I was asked to carry out this task by Anna Tyacke; Finds Liaison Officer for Cornwall so that a show and tell item was available for children and other interested people to handle at The Royal Cornwall Museum. On 14th March 2013 I had the privilege to study the slate disc at the Kennal Building, Truro under the supervision of the Historic Environment Service. Cradling it on acid-proof paper and wearing vinyl gloves I drew both sides of the slate disc at 100% scale. I did not offer up any steel or other hard materials for measuring and kept the tip of my 0.5 mm propelling pencil out of contact with the slate. The building offered good natural lighting and Sean Taylor made sure that I had ample side lighting from an angle-poise lamp and libations of tea at a discrete distance to the right of the drawing area. From the finds pits I was shown associated finds; including large sherds of Grooved Ware pottery, utilised flakes of nodular flint and a fragment of local slate bearing groups of scratch-marks.

Drawing the chequerboard side.

I drew the chequerboard decorated side of the disc without difficulty, despite not using my usual technique of poising the pencil over the feature on the item before withdrawing it to draw on the paper beneath; as it would risk marking the disc. By eye; with some adjustment of marking out lines the result was satisfactory. I was impressed by this side of the slate as soon as it appeared from its wrappings. It is coloured lightish grey, tinged green with traces of a red layer, seen on ancient naturally cleaved planes. This is the upward face in the deposit from the site photos and bore the brunt of the environmental chemical action. It contrasts with the under side which is much closer to the grey seen in fresh Delibole slate. The chequerboard design is well executed with a grid of slightly sinuous lines; freely drawn. The alternate fill of the sub squares is again a grid of lines following the same 90 degree orientation. As at the larger scale grid, the spacing and parallelism of the lines is intended but not stultified by the following of precise measurements. At both scales of grid there is a variation of about 2 in spacing, giving a movement and vibrancy. It is reminiscent of the Optical Art of Bridget Riley in that respect. The integration of the design into its field is partly a result of the mellowing and smoothing effect of its age and internment. The balance of the effect is from the repetitive recutting of the lines. The first order grids show little sign of internal striations in their cuts and the second order ones are nearly as deep, despite their close spacing and their ends terminate cleanly into the first order lines with few overshoots. Closer inspection to the scale of the second order grids is necessary to mitigate the patterns dance and shows that the sub-squares have been released as islands from the field by the deep cutting and their chamfered edges are like the cubes of a chunky chocolate bar. At this scale it is possible to see fine work marks where the tool has travelled but once or twice as it has jumped groove. The scriber has paid attention to returning to the desired cut. Doublings typically occur near the ends of second order lines and where first order lines meet the broken outer edge.

The outer strips bordering the flaked and ground edge have no second order work; perhaps as this was more likely to suffer these defects. The only significant omission is one set of second order gridding shown in the lower left of the first drawing overleaf. Some breakout delamination damage has occurred; likely post manufacture and perhaps some as scribing deepened; telling the worker that it was time to stop.

Above is a computer enhanced pencil drawing with marking out lines beyond the circumference, scribbled delaminated edge and major breakout areas marked: Slate disc checkerboard side. Dimensions: 191 x 173 x 12 mm. Slate disc is a circle truncated by 2 parallel straight edges.

Drawing the other side.

The fresher grey slate surface is intensely detailed and does not present an overall picture to the eye. It is like looking at a page of text and not seeing the meaning until one has read it. The side light reveals confusions of pattern within writhing lines, one area disappearing into shadow as another is revealed and interpreting the relationship between the parts tires the mind. Had this side been uppermost in the pit then much of the fine and shallow incising might have disappeared in the surface transformation. As it is, this side was out of sight before it was buried. Drawing this side was a daunting prospect. 2

Observation showed a relationship to the chequerboard side in that the field was divided by a grid although of slightly greater spacing than the first order grid of the other side. The spacing between these lines was more varied , by a factor of 4. The sinuosity of the lines was also greater, but the decisive difference in the development of the fills between the grid lines came from setting them on a diagonal pitch, not even parallel to the straight edges of the longer dimension of the disc. This has given the scriber the opportunity to exploit rhomboid bounded spaces for the second order decoration. It appears that the scriber was aware of the problems of working to the damaged edges of the disc as they incised border lines broadly parallel to the long straight edges of the edge of the disc beyond which they did not work. These truncated the outer rhomboids as triangles; opening up further decorative possibilities to exploit. The next image shows my attempt to draw this side of the slate. The slight inaccuracy of placement of the first order diagonals has caused excessive distortion of the rhomboid spaces and hence the scriber might have found different decorative solutions inside . Later with the help of the excellent digital images taken by Carl Thorpe I was able to see inaccuracies in the second order detailing itself which I have amended before posting this drawing.

Despite its inadequacies it reveals the creative chaos that ensued from changing the grid rules. Alternate rhomboids have been filled with parallel incisions. The open rhomboids contain smaller rhomboid outlines, some anchored to the outer one by a line or two. The infill is based on a scaffold of parallel lines onto which a herringbone pattern is attached. The scriber has not resisted the temptation to experiment with the fill of the rhomboids, foregoing the scaffold and nesting chevrons instead or tensing 2 sides of one of the rhomboids into a herringbone; producing a tanged arrowhead or birdlike motif. 3

The triangular motifs on the edges of the design have been treated slightly differently according to which edge they belong to. This suggests that they were filled as separate groups. On the lower edge a simple fill of parallel lines has been used, carefully not overrunning an inner triangle motif, so separating the image from its field. The lower left one develops this further by breaking out of the outer border and being further emboldened by another set of parallel lines running obliquely to the rest of the fill. The top border triangles are partially embedded in the field, continuing many of the parallel lines up to the edges of the rhomboids. Unique patterns have been experimented with; based upon 3 sets of parallel lines. Those parallel to the top edge of the slate are a constant but those running parallel to the other sides of the triangles have been varied in length. The furthest right has a set of nested triangles, the middle one has lines from the left shortening to give a part shaded effect and that on the left has a group of long lines from the left and a short set giving a small dense triangle within the larger one. On the far left a line has separated a triangle from its field in the same way as the ones on the lower edge, but uniquely it has been filled in with a scaffolded herringbone pattern, like the fill of the rhomboids. The next image is simplified to remove the triangle decoration and parallel line fills. The sinuous structure of the diagonal lines is revealed.

The diagonals run out of space on the left and a pair appear to have been terminated short, running from the upper left. The outlines of the internal rhomboids are shown and there is an extra one; unfinished as a mistake in the middle right and the terminated diagonals to the left have produced another rhomboid in the tangle of lines that was left undecorated as another mistake. An opportunity to complete lines and make a rhomboid immediately below it was missed and instead the out of sequence extra fill of parallel lines was chosen. Before the description of the materials selection and scribing process are the next two images overleaf giving a closer view of the decorative features, from studying Carl Thorpes images. 4

I spent a total of 3 and a half hours drawing both sides of the slate and I admit that I got tired and made mistakes in interpreting the fine single or only slightly recut lines. Carl shot digital images capable of high magnification with 90 degree different side lighting angles so this and the lower scrap view based upon them represent the definitive drawings for scribing the decoration on my replica slate attempt. More interesting designs are found in the upper triangle motifs in this version.

Material Selection.
From a small selection of broken roofing slates I determined, using a cardboard template that they were all too small, but I could experiment with scribing. It was quickly apparent that flint flakes were effective but that the simple edge was liable to pressure flake and splinter, breaking the line and embedding flint in the cut, causing further attrition on recutting. Therefor the small 3 to 5 cm length thin secondary flakes found at the Truro findspot were only marginally capable of producing the work. A scriber could have flaked back the edge to expose a denticule which could be strengthened by minor retouch. For me this was an improvement and importantly made it easier to determine the point of cutting, especially when needing to stop when reaching another line for the sake of decoration. A precise starting point of the cut in a previously cut line was also easier. The flakes I saw from the Truro site were of fine nodular flint. The backing cortex would have made a safe hold in the fingers for 5

cutting duties but I was sure that if these had been used the fingers would have been stressed and the work full of messy and overshot cuts. The implication of finds of nodular rather than pebble flint is that larger pieces were available and this crucially allows a tool to be made that is large enough to sit in the palm of the hand and so transmit far more controlled force, comfortably for extended sessions of scribing. I improvised several of these palm held flint denticules and determined to seek some slate of sufficient size and possibly of the approximate 12 mm thickness of the original. The Mylor Slate series is exposed in the inter-tidal zone at Trenow Cove, near Perranuthnoe, but the beach cobbles were too small and pieces cleaved from the reef proved to have been internally weakened by the salt water and fell apart when attempting to flake the edges to the size of the template. On the way home I saw Long Rock Memorials and they kindly gave me an off cut of pale grey slate of ample area and 10 mm thickness. It proved to be a little too dense and hard with a tendency to overflake at the edges. A vague journey looking for roof tiles was successful thanks to an unknown fly-tipper at Madron Well car park providing 4 slates of adequate area, but only 4 mm thick.

Making the decorated slate

I marked out the shape with blackboard chalk over the template. Hammer stone crushing the edge at the point of contact of the slate pressed obliquely onto a granite quern proved controllable with finishing by grinding against the quern. I marked out and rubbed out the chalk until the correct flow and spacing of the first order lines of the checkerboard design were in place. I cut firmly with the palm held denticule with the slate resting horizontally . This position seemed natural (to a modern person) but it later proved easier with more efficient and powerful use of the body to stand with the slate in the grip of the left hand; the slate balanced against the chest and angled towards the light. Cutting with 2 palm held denticules; reflaked to sharpen(dashed lines).

Unlike the original scriber I was bound to work off drawings and scribe the designs with chalk to make a copy. Free scribing in combination with the work style possibly lead to the mistakes that dominated the work of the improvised diagonal gridded side. Later I was to make my own mistakes that almost caused me to discard hours of work. I attempted the formal square gridded side first and was satisfied with the result. The 2 denticules survived with slight retouch every quarter or half an hour as the tip actually rounded or occasionally splintered. Inattention to tool upkeep lead to some scuffed pioneering lines and when recutting, the tool might leave the groove but recutting the dominant desired lines made the mistakes less noticeable from all but the 6

closest view; like the original. A flake of the same slate could even polish out shallow scratches if need be, but it appears to have not been practised on the original. Dampening the surface for visibility and dust control also enabled the tool to run more smoothly but was not essential. This side was satisfactorily achieved. There was minor exfoliation of upper surfaces of some of the second order squares, limited by the quite fresh nature of the chosen quarried slate. My earlier experiments suggested that the original would have badly delaminated in the closely worked second order decorated areas if a weathered slate from the land surface had been chosen; offering the not unexpected possibility of careful selection of slate from a quarry and a pre-metal slate splitting technology. The cutting of the other side proceeded as the first but for lack of over cutting. There is little evidence for more than one or sometimes two cuts in a line in the original judging by the fine shallow v-section lines with no sign groove jumping. The embedded white dust and white micro fractures in the surface of the cut lines is persistent enough to show up the decoration when dry even after one light cut but begins to disappear except in side lighting when wetted or after absorbing environmental oils i.e. from the hands. This can only be remedied by recutting and may have been practised on some slate plaques; perhaps on the other square gridded side of this one. At this point it is worth mentioning the scratched slate from the introduction. Drawn left, it is 55 X 60 X 7 mm thick and carries groups of tally marks on one side. I found that I was incidentally producing a similar effect on scrap slate during the graving process as after retouching the blunt tool I wanted to test the cut and remove small fragile pieces of flint before continuing the task. However this piece of slate may have been used when retouching flint flakes for duties other than graving the slate disc.

A lucky accident
I completed the diagonal gridded side and on checking details against the photographic images I realised that my original drawing that I had scribed from had some significant mistakes in the details of the decoration. I considered discarding the plaque but thought that I might produce a stilted copy of a copy of the first side if I tried again. Until deciding what to do I made the scrap views seen earlier in the document; based upon Carl Thorpes images. On reflection; my mistake could be salvaged and produce something more realistic than before, yet fulfil the Protocols of Erret Callaham by being signed and dated and so not be trying to be a fake in a museum. The spare slates could be glued together: a plain slate onto the failed diagonal gridded side and the final slate glued on when a satisfactorily working of the diagonal side had been achieved; reaching the originals thickness of 12 mm. With considerable use of the standing chest braced cutting technique I found it easy to turn the slate with the tool stopped to change direction sharply and start from existing lines. I noticed that I tended to focus on working in runs of decoration parallel to the top and bottom straight edges. This meant that lines flowed coherently on adjacent motifs because of only using a few gripping positions. Only by chalk pre-planning did

I avoid layout mistakes as I was too close to the work for an overview and had some of the slate surface obscured in my grip. The slates were glued with rubber contact adhesive and the slightly oversized slates ground down ,forming a filler paste with PVA glue on my granite quern. On a patch of unglued inner surface is inscribed: Copy of Woodcock Corner Disc 2013 with an airliner symbol. The quality of the PVA/slate dust edge filler is enough to give the object the look of solidity, but not enough to fool closer inspection.

Conclusions
Finally and tentatively I must express my opinions as to who made the disc and to what purpose. The chequerboard decorated surface is not literally a gaming surface or the unfilled second order decoration of one square would have been noticed. The stylistic affinities to the more chaotic and unusable side, as well as similarities to vertical megalithic slabs make that opinion likely to be uncontested. The count of second order squares in the fills of the squared grid seems to be determined by the wander of the lines and not to an arithmetic, calendric or other coded purpose. This decorative reasoning continues on the diagonal gridded side with development of fill ideas rather than maps or clan motifs; but I would like to be proved wrong! [There is at least one candidate clan motif: the nested chevrons and perhaps the stemmed arrowhead.] I could not fully resolve whether both sides were decorated by the same person. They share competent use of flint tools on slate. The chequerboard side has crisp recutting and few line overshoots. The finely incised other side is abandoned before recutting but the cuts also show few overshoots and have sharp changes of direction. Unlike the chequerboard there is an experimentation in decoration and a less determined view as to what the finished item would look like. They have spent only the time to cover the surface once; perhaps a quarter of the time of the chequerboard overcutting and have freely drawn it without planning in less than half an hour. My suspicion is that seeing the mature, laboured and restrained work of the chequerboard slate, which is commensurate with the effort to source and trim it; a slightly less mature person attempted to better the design; on the back. To consciously depart from the original they slewed the diagonals. They embellished the triangles and rhomboid spaces in a way consistent with the cultural objects that surrounded them. Their lack of forward planning , combined with the pre chair and table method of working gave them power and control over the detail cutting but lost them the overview of their working and it proved complicated enough for even a competent person to make mistakes in layout. To dwell here, on the mistakes is the response of someone who has little else to say with certainty. Why did they not overcut their work? The quite shallow pioneering cuts might have been difficult to overcut without jumping the groove; especially with the sharp direction changes of the herringbone decoration but in any case might indicate a gracile or youthful scriber, not capable of delivering greater controlled pressure. Perhaps they were disappointed and knew that overcutting would draw attention to their mistakes. Perhaps like some decorated Later Neolithic pottery such mistakes of poor layout planning were tolerated and the scriber was happy with the shallowly incised sketch. However the original is interpreted: one scriber or two; the two sides share tooling techniques as well as alternate repeated fill grid layout and apparently have cultural and strong contextual associations with Grooved Ware Culture. 8

Whether one person or two; the unity and yet polarity of the decoration of the opposite sides is apparent : one person in two different moods or two distinct people but related by family, friendship and rivalry? The planning and restraint of one side and the exploitation of lucky accidents on the other. Wild nature versus Civilisation. A hierarchy of bounded, parcelled-up space versus a fluid and changing territory with barriers being broken as new forms emerge? A comment on the times. Take a look! Photocopy images of both sides of the reproduction slate disc.

Bottom left is a side view of the 3 layer composite, showing the slate/PVA dust fill and 12 mm thickness.

Below is a view of the inscription to be found on one of the internal surfaces of the composite slate.

Thanks to Anna Tyacke for the commission, Carl Thorpe for original images, Sean Taylor for making a CD of them and EDC Truro site images and all at HES for making my time there most enjoyable. 22nd March 2013.

Late News.(document under construction)

In late May 2013 I realised in the light of a fresh look at the Clodgy Moor Boat Slate that the occult side of the slate represents the effect of Beaker contact with the Neolithic. Coastal territories as triangles distort the inner landscape of ard scratched/terrtorial fences/houses to lozenges, setting up a Harlequin pattern. The pattern can be seen as a map if not necessarily accurate in a literal sense. The flat upper and lower edges of the plaque are likely so that the piece can be propped on a ledge, not necessarily a Skara Brae type dresser so that side light flickering from a lighted rush or wood fire causes a 3D dancing sculpture, particularly effective on the square gridded side. The stability of Neolithic world view is altered by the adventurous Beaker with their package of triangular arrows, shiny shiny metal daggers running triangle patterned upperworked sailing ships and similarly decorated pots and gold lunulae.

The chequerboard image dances to the flickering side light of the flame.

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(The following 400 word article submitted to Cornish Archaeology newsletter in Nov.2013)

Woodcock Corner slate disc explored through replication.

In March 2013 Graham Hill was asked to copy the remarkable incised Grooved Ware object, found in a pit at the Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Truro EDC site in 2012. This would enable the less well known diagonally gridded side to also be seen in the Royal Cornwall Museum display. Using improvised flint tools the work took several hours with testing after resharpenig producing tally-marks similar to those on a curious stone found at the find site. Hill agreed with Anna Tyacke; FLO for Cornwall that the slate disc at 12mm thick seemed too massive to comfortably fit the conventional description of a pot lid. The bold checkerboard grid within a grid deeply incised design also made a deep impression and Hill wondered if there may be meaning in the pattern. A calender or numerical diagram were dismissed as some of the grid lines were misaligned and a gaming board suggestion had a missing cross-hatched square, which would have been noticed when a counter was put on it. Developing Marija Gimbutas motif analysis which relates grids to sacred moisture from which life springs then the design may be a Neolithic idealised world view; as much a map of their outlook as of how they wished to work in their landscape. Criss-cross ard marks scratch the surface of parcels of land, stockades pen domesticated animals, axes cut trees and split logs and square framed houses are built. Thomas Goskar told Hill about the remarkable properties of moving light and seeing the object in the flickering light of a flame it became reasonable; given the parallel straight edges on the mis-named disc to prop it up against a wall on a ledge or dresser, such as was found at Skara Brae; the dancing light bringing the image to life in shadow play. The complex other side; for the first time revealed by the fresh contrast of slate dust appeared to be a riot of creativety , uninhibited by the fear of mistakes. The work of a younger person perhaps; but it still kept the grid formula, but springing diagonally from decorated triangles backed onto baselines which Hill interpretted as shorelines with European Bronze Age ships making fabled contacts with stone age inhabitants of The British Isles and hence stimulating a rapid and remarkably homogenious archaeological phenomenon: Grooved Ware Culture.

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