Stone ax (stone age)

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Fibrolite and jadeite axes from the Neolithic Age , Brittany
Stone ax
Stone ax, found in a linear ceramic fountain in Schkeuditz-Altscherbitz
Ax of the Pfyner culture with wing spar shaft (replica)
Flint ax (core ax)

The stone ax is a sharpened ax made of crystalline stone or flint . Stone axes were among the most important tools of the European Neolithic . Despite the growing importance of metallic materials, they existed well into the Bronze Age .

In medieval folklore, stone artifacts had a magical meaning. Stone axes were sent into the earth as lightning by the god of thunder - this is the pre-scientific explanation for such finds, which is why they were called thunderbolts .

Terms

In the archaeological context in Germany:

  • a stone body without a shaft hole called a hatchet
  • a stone body with a shaft hole, possibly created with a stone drill , on the other hand called an ax .

The axes that appear first are stocked by tying them onto a piece of wood (knee stalk stock) or by inserting the hatchet into a stile or into an intermediate lining made of antlers (mostly from the red deer ), which is then inserted into the wooden shaft. The division into ax and hatchet is independent of the material (stone, bronze, iron), the handling (one or two-handed) and the use. The problem with the terminology is the fact that in the archaeological context it is almost exclusively the ax blades whose shafts cannot always be reconstructed. So which are the axes adze accrued whose blades transversely to the scarf joint stand (hence "adze" called).

distribution

In 2010, media reports revealed that a cut piece of basalt from Abri Nawarla Gabarnmang ( Arnhem Land , Australia) was up to 35,000 years old and was interpreted as part of a cut stone ax. Apart from this individual find, cut axes are only known in various regions of the world at the beginning of the Holocene , for example in Puntutjarpa and Devil's Lair ( Western Australia ). Cut symmetrical axes from Göbekli Tepe (Turkey) come from roughly the same time horizon .

In Central Europe, hatchets and adzes first appeared during the Mesolithic . Unpolished flint axes have survived from this period ( core axes and disc axes ), which were probably attached to a shaft with organic material or - as finds from Hohen Viecheln show - similar to Neolithic axes that were placed in a lining made of antlers .

Cut axes are rare in the Mesolithic of Europe, but can be found in the Irish Late Mesolithic and in Norway.

From the Neolithic onwards, hatchets made of cut or polished stone were used. The typical cross-ax of the band ceramics was the so-called shoe last wedge . Metal forms have been imitated in stone since the early Neolithic. In some areas stone axes were in use until the Bronze Age or were reappeared in the form of cylinder axes .

use

Stone axes were tools, possibly also weapons, but above all objects of prestige. The end-Neolithic hatchets ( hammer and battle axes ) in particular are mostly interpreted as weapons. Of the importance as prestige goods attest z. B. the widespread hatchet made of jadeite from Monte Viso and decorated ax and hatchet bodies that appear as early as the Mesolithic (antler ax from Eckernförde) and are particularly common in the metal ages. These axes from quarries in the western Alps were widespread and made their way as far as Brittany and Great Britain ( sweet-track jade).

gallery

See also

Web links

Commons : Steinbeil (Stone Age)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The oldest cut stone tool in the world Epoc, message dated November 8, 2010 (accessed January 28, 2012)
  2. 35,000-year-old ax head places Aboriginal ancestors at the cutting edge of technology TheAge.com.au (accessed January 28, 2012)
  3. PC Woodman, E. Anderson, N. Finlay: Excavations at Ferriter's Cove, 1983-95: last foragers, first farmers in the Dingle Peninsula (Bray, Co. Wicklow). Wordwell, Dublin 1999.
  4. Pierre Pétrequin, M. Errera, AM Pétrequin and P. Allard: The neolithic quarries of Mont Viso (Piedmont, Italy). Initial radiocarbon dates. In: European Journal of Archeology 9 (1). 2006, pp. 7-30.
  5. http://www.lda-lsa.de/landesmuseum_fuer_vorgeschichte/fund_des_monats/2008/januar/