Stone Age Polished Stone Axehead

Comprising mostly bifacial and uniface leaf-shaped flint and chert arrowheads; probably from the Sahara region of North Africa. 140 grams total, 33-56 mm



UK gallery, early 2000s.

Between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, some of the most useful human inventions were perfected, including the bow and arrow. The feathered arrow for hunting birds was invented. Most arrows used during hunting were tipped with flint or obsidian, although some had blunt wooden tips to stun birds without injuring them. The bows were made of ash and the strings were made of animal sinews.

Biconvex in section, long and slender with narrow butt. 147 grams, 14.4 cm



Found whilst fieldwalking in Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK. Ex English private collection. From the collection of a South West London, UK, collector.

Comprising nineteen knapped tools and one polished implement. 405 grams total, 3.2-13.4 cm



UK gallery, early 2000s.

In the Neolithic the continuing predominance of flint artefacts did not stop the evolution of the society. The neolithic people were different in radical way from their predecessors. Farming rather than hunting was now the basis of the human existence, creating slowly but inesorably a more sedentary way of life in villages of timber-houses. Consequently the artefacts created by the men of Neolithic were tool instruments, like axes used in felling trees to create fields from the natural woodland, and in shaping timber for construction.