1 A.M. Jones, H. Quinnell & R.T. Taylor RECENT WORK ON GROUP XIX ARTEFACTS FROM NORTH CLIFFS: RECONSIDERING THE USE OF CORNISH GREYWACKE A.M. Jones 1 , H. Quinnell 2 & R.T. Taylor 3 ABSTRACT Group XIX represents a type of greywacke, a hard sandstone or gritstone, long thought to have its source in Cornwall. Although Group XIX has never been recognised as a major source of Neolithic axeheads, pieces attributed to it have a fairly wide distribution across southern Britain. Limited work was undertaken on a small group of Mesolithic stone tools from Hudder Field in the 1980s, and North Clifs on the north Cornish coast was suggested as the probable source of Group XIX. A recent Historic England funded project was undertaken by the authors between 2016–2018. This catalogued approximately 23,000 lithic fnds (fint and worked stone) collected by the late Charles Thomas during systematic feldwalking over the Mesolithic fint scatters in Hudder Field. Analysis of a sample of approximately 25 percent of the fint and stonework was also undertaken to better characterise and date the scatters. Supplementary to the project, the South West Implement Petrology Group funded thin sectioning and microphotography of fve of the Mesolithic worked stones from Hudder Field, which had initially been identifed as axes or potential axes. This article reports on the thin section analysis, which confrmed that four of the stone tools were greywacke of Group XIX. This compliments macro-analysis of the assemblage, which revealed that the tools were made from beach pebbles similar to those found on the beaches below North Clifs. It also discusses the character of the worked stone assemblage from Hudder Field, its date and the implications for Group XIX artefacts from beyond Cornwall, the majority of which may not be axes or of Neolithic date. Full reference: Jones, A.M., Quinnell, H. & Taylor, R.T. (2023) Recent work on Group XIX artefacts from North Clifs: reconsidering the use of Cornish greywacke. Lithics 41: XX–XX. Keywords: Mesolithic, Neolithic, North Clifs, bevelled pebbles, stone axeheads. INTRODUCTION Despite being far less important than the west Cornish greenstones (Clough 1988; Jones et al. 2017), Group XIX greywacke has long been identifed as a minor raw material source for the production of axeheads and other prehistoric tool types. Until recently, however, its origin was only broadly attributed to Cornwall (Evens et al. 1962) (Figure 1). Petrographic study of a small number of stone tools from Hudder Field, conducted as part of an undergraduate dissertation, led to the suggestion that the North Clifs was the source of Group XIX (Mitchell 1988). This proposition, however, was not published or followed up further. The distribution of Group XIX artefacts in Stone Axe Studies II (Clough 1988, map 16) shows a relatively small number of grouped artefacts that, despite having a concentration in west Cornwall, are rare and quite widely scattered across southern England. This distribution has not altered since that time (Figure 2). 1 Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Cornwall Council, Truro 2 Honorary Research Fellow, University of Exeter, Exeter. Email: h.quinnell@exeter.ac.uk 3 49 Clyst Valley Road, Clyst St. Mary, Exeter