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Product Description
SEE MORE EUROPEAN NEOLITHIC ARTIFACTS
One of the most iconic flint artifacts of the Danish Neolithic period are the flaked and polished rectangular flint axe heads of varying sizes. This is one of those axes with reduced dimensions, likely for detail wood-working tasks such as construction precision or boat-making. The flint has been patinated a variety of colors by the soil minerals, and deposited a beautiful mineral gloss on much of the surface. Many of these Neolithic axes are found in farming fields and often broken or badly damaged by the plows before they were discovered. This fine example shows no such damage and is complete in perfect preservation. The chopping edge is still sharp with original grinding marks still evident!
The way these axes were made is identical regardless of the size. A piece of flint was carefully shaped by grinding and flaking the stone. Further flaking squared up all the sides to the chopping end. The chopping end was finished smooth by pure grinding and polishing to shape the sharp edge.
This specimen was found in the Funen Archipelago of Denmark, on an Early Neolithic settlement site once inhabited by people of the Funnel-Necked Beaker Pottery Culture of Northern Europe. While we have offered numerous flake tools, axes and some daggers from this culture, this is the one and only axe we to offer.
Original ground minerals and sediment are still intact in hinge fractures - an indicator ONLY seen in AUTHENTIC specimens. This Neolithic artifact is a supreme example of the workmanship of a skilled tool maker from the earliest of north Europe's farming society. Genuine tools from the Funnel-Necked Beaker Pottery Culture represent an excellent opportunity to acquire a genuine stone tool artifact from some of the world's first farming peoples!
HISTORY
The earliest food-producing communities of Northern Europe belonged to the Funnel-Necked Beaker Pottery Culture. This culture existed from 6200 to 4800 years ago in the Northern-most European region. The pottery produced by these earliest farmers had a distinctive necked design. The first use of the PLOW, ANIMAL TRACTION and WHEELED TRANSPORT in north-central Europe is attributed to this Neolithic culture. Megalithic chambered tombs were employed and built into long mounds. These mounds made by the Funnel-Necked Beaker peoples still stand today in many parts of north Europe.
Farming in northern and central Europe differed from that of the more temperate southern regions of Europe, the Middle East and north Africa. The harsh winters required crops to be sown in the Spring as opposed to the Fall for the latter. Woodland grazing in the north meant more emphasis on the raising of cattle and pigs compared to the herds of sheep and goats popular in the south.
Neolithic settlements were typically small in population with only about forty to sixty people. The wooden longhouse was the main type of building which housed both people and their livestock. Postholes are all that remain today leaving burials and ritual stone structures as the only remnants of this period. Neolithic burials were either individual or communal. The communal burials were housed in large megalithic structures which were then covered with earth creating a giant mound. Offerings of stone tools, pottery and ornaments were often included in burials.
