AXE

Butt end of a chert axe or possibly adze of later Mesolithic to early Neolithic date, 6500-2900 BC. It is oval ion section and has part of an S-shaped curve in profile. The butt is rounded. The tool has been shaped by removal or large scalar flakes around the edge on both sides. Down the centre of one side is a large area of creamy cortex covering c.40% of the face. On the other some flakes have been removed in the centre, adjacent to the break. One at least appears to have been removed after the break or possibly as part of the break, it is not clear if damage to this area could be from deliberate breaking. On the side without cortex there is one large flake scar with a very glassy polish. The polish suggests the removal is much older and has weathered over a much longer timescale than the other removals. However it may have been a accidental removal due to natural damage and any other possible evidence of working is lost. The break is flat and even. the sides are blunted and the extent of blunting may suggest this is deliberate rather than all post depositional damage. The chert is a creamy colour with a darker pink layer of better quality material on one side and other patches of pale and dark pink within it, possibly iron staining from the soil. It is 83.1mm long, 45.0mm wide and 28.5mm thick, it weighs 145 grams.

Dr Kevin Leahy writes: some caution is needed when discussiong the strange object. Its form is unlike that of an axe and it retains an unusually large area of cortex. The flake areas bear what looks like sand polishing 'desert gloss'. It may not be worked implement.