Pickaxe

The pickaxe is the outline, a derivative of the "common European Hammeraxt " and the central German faceted ax . It is provided with a pointed front part and a double-conical shaft hole and is connected to the single grave or battle ax culture . Battle axes and pickaxes have the same range.

One can only speculate about the use of the pickaxe. The interpretation varies between tool, cult object and weapon . The picked double-conical perforation is often smoothed or re-ground and often has a very small inner diameter, which is unfavorable for use as a tool and weapon. It is possible that pickaxes were attached to a string or a leather strap and used as a sling weapon and were not "hicks" at all. Apparently they have not yet been found in graves. Rather, they are reading finds in which the pick often broke at the shaft hole.

Since a group of the faceted battle axes of the corded ceramists of Central Germany was modeled, the origin of the pickaxes is to be sought in this area. Schleswig, Jutland and the Danish islands do not belong to their range. The form came to East Westphalia via the Neustadt am Rübenberge / Porta Westfalica and Göttingen / Kassel areas . Via the southern Hellweg zone and the Haarstrag / Haarweg it reached - like the early hammer axes - the northern Sauerland and the Ruhr area . In Münsterland have not added any Spitz sculpting found.

literature

• Ulrich Nahrendorf: Westphalia in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. Investigations into the settlement history of the north-west German landscape between the Lower Rhine and Middle Weser . Dissertation, University of Münster 1989.