First Report of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western Group of Museums and Art Galleries on the Petrological Identification of Stone Axes

Abstract

For many years past on both formal and informal occasions, archaeologists and others, including Mr W. F. Grimes (1932 and 1935) and Dr F. J. North (1938), have been stressing the importance of a scientific examination of the numerous stone axes in public and private collections. It has been urged that an exact determination of the rock material and its original provenance, together with a knowledge of the locality at which the tool was found, would lead to far wider and more exact information concerning early trade routes and other factors of economic and social importance in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times.A major hindrance to the realisation of these anticipations lay with owners who required the petrologist to identify the rocks by macroscopical characters alone. It was of little avail for the geologist to point out that grinding, polishing and patination had often obliterated the few surface features available and that even if fracturing of the specimen were allowed, no real progress could be made until a thin section of the axe was obtained. Pressed for an identification even on the above unsatisfactory grounds, geologists have at times given answers which are really little better than reasoned guesses, and the archaeologists have based some equally speculative deductions upon them.

Petrological identification of stone implements from Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland

“…This rock is a calc-silicate hornfels (Keiller et al 1941;Stone and Wallis 1951), an impure limestone which has been metamorphosed by heat from an adjacent intrusion. The group was originally defined on the basis of two axes, one from Buckinghamshire and one from Scotland.…”

“…In the 30 years which have followed, no additions have been made to the original list of two axes. No factory site was known, though calc-silicate hornfels from the St Ives area in Cornwall was similar, but not identical (Keiller et al 1941).…”

“…The rock characteristic of this group has been described as an epidotized tuff (Keiller et al 1941;Stone and Wallis 1951;Bunch and Fell 1949), a slightly altered volcanic ash. The axe factories from which Group VI axes were produced are known in the Great Langdale area (Keiller et al 1941;Bunch and Fell 1949) and neighbouring parts of the Lake District (Plint 1962;Fell 1964).…”

“…The axe factories from which Group VI axes were produced are known in the Great Langdale area (Keiller et al 1941;Bunch and Fell 1949) and neighbouring parts of the Lake District (Plint 1962;Fell 1964). …”

Using Geochemistry to Interpret Porcellanite Stone Axe Production in Ireland

“…Porcellanite axes are very widely distributed in Ireland and in lesser numbers in Britain. The recognition of their presence in Britain in the 1930s resulted in the designation of porcellanite axes as Group IX in the British scheme for the petrological classification of stone axes and their sources (Keiller, Piggott & Wallis, 1941;Clough & Cummins, 1979Francis, Francis & Preston, 1988). Prior to the establishment of ISAP the study of porcellanite axes was the only coherent focus in stone axe studies in Ireland (Sheridan, Cooney & Grogan, 1992).…”