Stone tool, possibly an axe. [BS [OPS Move] 20/10/2016]

Collection type: Object
Description: Stone tool, possibly an axe. [BS [OPS Move] 20/10/2016]
Long description: Stone tool, possibly an axe. Naturally formed from a piece of flint with tree root grown around it. The wood part has a cylindrical shaft and the surface of the head has probably been smoothed and rounded. [BS [OPS Move] 20/10/2016]
Geographical reference: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; England Wiltshire Rushmore Cranborne Chase
Cultural groups: English
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Date
Date collected: By 1881 March 18
Acquisition information: Donated: 1884 Found unentered: Found unentered
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Material Stone, Process Carved
Dimensions: Depth: max 100 mm, Width: max 130 mm, Length: max 745 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1884.140.1775 PR no.: ?162/ 12099
Research and responses: It is a pity that the person who added the note to the delivery catalogue did not check its documentation against the accession books or actually number this object. No other object has the number 162/ 12099 allocated to it. Note that this object is referred to in Nature 22 23.9.1880 p491 'Thus among the series of savage stone hatchets and adzes we find specimens of natural stone axes as were (fig 1 I) roots of trees which have ground round and attached themselves firmly to stones which have somewhat of an axe blade shape, so as to appear like natural hatchets. It is quite concievable that the first idea of the axe, the fixing of a stone blade at the end of a lever, may have arisen from the observation by primitive man, and the possible use of such a natural hatchet'. [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]
Pitt Rivers published a number of volumes on his excavations at Cranborne Chase in 1887, 1888, 1892 and 1898. [CB 8/12/209]

Search terms: Weapon, Tool, Unidentified Object

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