AXEHEAD

Flint flake from a polished axehead (Alison Roberts, Ashmolean Museum, pers comm), pentagonal in plan with parallel oblique margins, and lozenge-shaped in profile and in section, with a central medial ridge. The proximal end retains the bulb of percussion on the ventral face and the distal end has been truncated by a hinge fracture on the ventral face, which restricts the re-use of this edge. There is a thin section of the polished edge remaining on the upper left margin of the dorsal face. The left margin of the ventral face has some retouch towards the hinge fracture, but this is haphazard and uneven so was likely not used as a cutting edge. The thin curving profile, the narrow butt with a diffuse bulb and small lip, the hinge fracture on the ventral face, and the multi-directional negative scars on the dorsal face all suggest that this is typical of an axe-thinning flake (Butler, 141, Fig.58).

The flint is patinated and creamy white in colour and not local to the area. There is no cortex left on the surface, suggesting that this is a tertiary flake from a large core, which may have been brought in to the county to produce the axe. The length to breadth ratio is 1:1. Polished axes like these are dated from the Neolithic period.

Bond (2004) illustrates ground axe blade and butt end fragments on pages 140 & 143, Figs.5.126 & 5.129, Nos.15 & F142-3, which are dated from the Later Neolithic period.

Butler (2005) illustrates a similar axe-thinning flake on page 141, Fig.58, No.2, which is dated to the Neolithic period.