Stone Age Boat-Shaped Axehead

NEOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD MILLENNIUM B.C.

4 in. (635 grams, 10 cm).

A diorite axe-hammer, with rounded butt chamfered at the edge and with convex sides, sub-rectangular in section, dark green fine-grained stone. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired 1971-1972.
From the collection of the vendor's father.
Property of a London, UK, collector.

Literature

Cf. Glob, P.V., Danske Oldsager II Yngre Stenalder, Copenhagen, 1952, item 547, for type; MacGregor, A., Antiquities from Europe and the Near East in the collection of the Lord McAlpine of West Green, Ashmolean Museum, 1987, nos.5.42.

Footnotes

During Neolithic period, while objects for everyday use, such as knife blades, arrows and lance tips were often only knapped - albeit with very fine retouching - and people soon learnt how to polish selected tools and equipment with sand for a smooth surface. Rotating tubular bone and sand made it possible to fit axes and hammers with a pierced 'eye' for the handle. This eye socket is the preliminary stage of the Bronze Age socket.

CONDITION

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LOT 1098