Copper ax from Reiffenhausen

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The Reiffenhausen copper ax is a late Neolithic ax made of copper . It was found in 2001 in the Friedland community in Lower Saxony . The find took place during the site inspection before the construction of the A38 . The shaft hole ax was recovered from the Uhlenkopf, a small muschelkalk ridge rising 337 m above sea level on the eastern edge of the Leinetal .

Comparable ax

description

The 14 cm long shaft hole ax made of polymetallic copper with a high arsenic contenthas a 4.4 cm wide convex cutting edge and a knuckle-hammer-shaped thickened neck. The diameter of the oval pommel is between 2.7 and 3.1 cm. There is a slight thickening of the ax body at the neck of the shaft hole. In the cylindrical hole was the 3.8 cm long end of a copper shaft 1.3 cm in diameter. A kinked shaft fragment found separately is 8.5 cm long, has a diameter of about 1.3 cm and shows old, patinated broken ends, which, however, do not fit the broken end on the ax. The weight of the ax with the remains of the handle is 458 g, that of the handle fragment is 53 g. The ax body and handle were cast in two-shell cast as full molds. A casting seam cannot be seen.

The ax and handle are made of polymetallic copper with a high arsenic content. The metal analyzes , the lead isotope determination and the metallographic investigations allow assumptions to be made about the origin of the metal. The high arsenic content is not seen as an intentional alloy content, but as an admixture of ore caused by the deposit. Such deposits were preferentially exploited at this time. The numerous arsenic copper artifacts of the Southeast European and Middle Eastern Copper Age and Early Bronze Age show that this is characteristic of the phase before the emergence of tin bronze . On the basis of the metal analysis, an analogy with Southeastern European-Anatolian- Pontic finds can be established. The greatest similarities arise with arsenic copper finds from Chalcolithic contexts of the 4th to 3rd millennium BC. BC of the Trojan culture ( Poliochni , Thermi on Lesbos), but also with Southeast Anatolia ( Mersin ) and Iran ( Tepe Hissar ). Ultimately, areas from the Carpathian region to Eastern Iran come into consideration.

Typological assessments lead to the assumption that the raw metal of the ax was obtained from the distant area, but the ax is a product of the south-eastern European Carpathian and Danube region or the central European area, which was probably in the period from the late 4th to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. For the step from a more eastern deposit to the production area, possibly the late Tiszapolgár culture or the Bodrogkeresztúr culture, trade in bars would be required. The mediation of the finished product from the manufacturer to the place of discovery allows large-scale exchanges through to successive untargeted distribution in the form of smaller exchanges. The site of the ax recovered as a surface find is outstanding in its location between the southern Harz and Leine-Werrabergland and suggests the character of a depot find for the unusual piece . The archaeological prospecting of the area revealed Neolithic finds as well as a young to end Neolithic group of adjacent hilltop settlements.

See also

literature

  • Klaus Grote : Young Neolithic copper ax, Wüstung Mechelmeshusen: Archaeological results in the run-up to the construction of the motorway Göttingen - Halle in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony , 2/2012, pp. 66–68.
  • Klaus Grote: The late Neolithic copper ax from Reiffenhausen, Ldkr.Göttingen (southern Lower Saxony). In: Archaeological correspondence sheet. Vol. 34, 2004, ISSN  0342-734X , pp. 321-336.
  • Klaus Simon, Andreas Kronz, Ernst Pernicka : Scientific investigations of the late Neolithic copper ax from Reiffenhausen. In: Archaeological correspondence sheet. Vol. 34, 2004, pp. 337-356.
  • Konrad von Fournier: Manufacture of a Chalcolithic copper ax: casting, processing and working sample 2011

Web links


Coordinates: 51 ° 24 '  N , 9 ° 59'  E