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Description: | Neolithic polished stone axe. The axe is oval in cross-section with flattened upper and lower edges. The axe tapers at both ends, one terminating with a wide, worn and slightly chipped cutting edge, and at the other end to a narrower, more abraded butt. The surface of the axe is highly polished with a few patches of later damage. The axe is a mottled green colour, and looks very similar in fabric to Neolithic polished axes from the Langdale quarry in the Lake District.The axe was reported to the FLO at a finds open day at Nettleham All Saints Church, on the 15/1/2005. The axe was apparently found in a pile of rubble after a house demolition in Nettleham in the 1960s. The Lincolnshire Echo ran a story on the axe, which appeared in the paper on the 17th Jan 2005. A transcript of the article follows:An ancient Lincolnshire hunter's axe head has finally been identified by archaeologists - 40 years after it was found.
The 6,000-year-old weapon, which may have been used to kill wild deer and boar, was brought to a village heritage day by pensioner Kathleen Hesketh.
She found the rare artefact, one of only a handful ever discovered, in a pile of rubble after a house demolition in Nettleham in the 1960s.
She kept it without realising its historical significance.
Specialists hosting a heritage day in the village, near Lincoln, on Saturday quickly realised that the axe head was a rare find.
"The cottage, owned by my father, was made of wattle and daub and was deemed unfit to live in," said Mrs Hesketh.
"Me and my husband Bert had the task of demolishing it. One day I arrived and saw this bright green stone - I said 'this would make a good knife sharpener' but my husband thought it was an axe head."
Mrs Hesketh, of The Green, Nettleham, had the stone assessed a number of years ago and was told it was probably a Neolithic axe head - but she took the object along to the heritage day to get this confirmed.
"I was told that the stone was probably 2,000 years old," she said. "But on Saturday they said it could be 6,000 years old - it was quite surprising."
The axe head is around 7in long, 2in wide and just 1in thick. Archaeologists believe it was made by one of Britain's first specialist weapon-makers sometime between 4500 and 2000 BC.
Although happy with the news Mrs Hesketh, a pensioner, has no intention of parting with the object.
"I have had it in my house since it was found and will not be getting rid of it," she said. "It's a lovely piece to hold - it's smooth and a beautiful green colour. There's nothing to it and I will be keeping it."
Lincolnshire County Council archaeologist Adam Daubney (25) was impressed by the find.
"The axe head is from the type of stone found in the Great Langdale area in the Lake District," he said.
"I believe the item has been exchanged or traded - which is how it found its way to the county.
"It could have been used to kill animals but I believe this item was probably a symbol of power."
Bronze Age spear heads, Roman coins and pottery were among the other items handed in on the day.
Mr Daubney said: "One of the most interesting finds were two jettons, or counting tokens, which were made during the 16th or 17th century in Nuremberg, Germany."
The heritage day, organised by the Nettleham Heritage Group, was held at All Saints' Church and attracted around 400 people.
The group's chairman the Reverend Gordon Sleight (57) said: "The day was a huge success." | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 4000
2500 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Adam Daubney | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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