AXEHEAD

A complete polished chert Neolithic axehead, trapezoidal in plan, and lozenge-shaped in profile and section. According to Implement Petrology classifications: the face shape is virtually a symmetrical ovate (Class FS01), a medium symmetrical in profile (P02) and a pointed oval (CS13) in cross section. The blade section is symmetrical (BS10), the cutting edge curved, symmetrical (ES04), and the butt rounded in plan and pointed in profile (BU10). All surfaces have been ground and polished from a flaked roughout. At the butt end on the ventral face are two medium-sized flake scars which have not been completely polished away, together with several very small areas of ancient edge damage. Also on this face, on the body of the axehead, there are two concentric flaws in the chert which appear to be natural sedimentary planes. On the dorsal face a there is a small, shallow incompletely-polished flake scar close to the butt end and on the left margin two tear-shaped depressions and at the cutting edge a very small flake in the centre of the curve, also dating from when the axehead was in use, as they have worn down since deposition. Otherwise the axe is completely undamaged. The chert is a mottled light brown in colour and could be local to the Mildenhall area where it was found (Roger Taylor pers comm).

Bond (2004) illustrates a similar polished flint axehead, also from Mildenall, Suffolk, on page 136, fig.5.123, no.F70, which is dated from the Earlier Neolithic.