Stone Age Polished Stone Axehead

Lentoid in section with barbs to the rear. 0.86 grams, 23 mm



From Niger, West Africa. Acquired on the European art market. From a private S.W. London, UK, collection.

Barbed and tanged type with square ends to the tang. 5.18 grams, 42 mm



From the collection of a late Buckinghamshire gentleman, formed from the 1960s.

Round-section pestle with polished butt; inked legend 'Treen / Penwith / Sam Angoye'. 218 grams, 76 mm



Found Treen, Penwith, UK. From the collection of Haselmere Parish Priest, Charles Borelli (c.1914-2000) of Farnham; who was part of the Borelli family from Italy who emigrated from Lake Como in 1828 to set up the Borelli family watch and jewellery business; thence by family descent to his nephew.

Farnham district is one of the most interesting prehistoric regions in England, and has been visited by a succession of prehistoric peoples from Palaeolithic times onwards. Along the southern slope of the Farnham valley are three gravel terraces, which are famous prehistorically and have yielded large quantities of flint implements and bones of prehistoric animals, notably the mammoth. In prehistoric times, the chalk deposits played an important role in attracting settlers, as they contained rich layers of flint nodules used to make implements. The Farnham Gravels have been an abundant source of Palaeolithic finds, most prominent being hand axes. The axes differ in type, and each type is associated with a cultural phase of the Palaeolithic period. Types similar to these are found in similar deposits in the Somme valley and in many English valley gravels. Neolithic people are known to have engaged in flint mining. Polished axes and leaf forms, arrowheads and knives, or possibly lance heads, are characteristic of Neolithic flint work.