Tools of Environmental Exploitation to the Corsican Neolithic: Polished Stone Axes

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Colonna
Keyword(s):  
Polished Stone Axes

Ground Stone Tools from Serra Orlando (Morgantina) and Stone Axe Studies in Sicily and Southern Italy

1989 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Leighton ◽  
J. E. Dixon ◽  
A. M. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Metal Tools ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

Ground and polished stone axes in southern Italy received little attention after a period of lively interest in the late 19th century. The great number of axes from archaeological sites and collections suggests widespread manufacture and exchange on a considerable scale. In eastern Sicily the production of basalt axes was long-lived, beginning in the Neolithic (Stentinello phase) and reaching a peak in the Copper and Early Bronze Ages. Greenstone axes are also found throughout these periods. By the Middle or Late Bronze Age, stone axes were probably little used, having been largely replaced by metal tools.The axes from Serra Orlando (where the historical site of Morgantina is located) form one of the largest collections in Sicily from a single site, where they were found in multi-period contexts, dating from the third millennium BC until the Hellenistic period. Petrological analysis suggests that basalt from the Iblean hills was frequently used for their manufacture, while the serpentinites, tremolite-bearing rocks and pyroxenite probably originate in the Calabro-Peloritani Arc. The results of the analysis of thin sections are presented in appendixes. Raw materials, distribution and manufacture of axes are discussed and a preliminary investigation of their typology is presented. Multiple functions for Sicilian axes, related to morphology and raw materials, are suggested by their archaeological contexts.

Furness’s First Farmers: Evidence of Early Neolithic Settlement and Dairying in Cumbria

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 165-198
Author(s):  
Gav Robinson ◽  
Matthew Town ◽  
Torben Bjarke Ballin ◽  
Ann Clarke ◽  
Julie Dunne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Lipid Analysis ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Hazelnut Shell ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Post Hole ◽  
Dairy Fats ◽  
Polished Stone Axes ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Burnt Bone

In 2015, excavations at Stainton Quarry, Furness, Cumbria, recovered remains that provide a unique insight into Early Neolithic farming in the vicinity. Five pits, a post-hole, and deposits within a tree-throw and three crevices in a limestone outcrop were investigated. The latter deposits yielded potentially the largest assemblage of Carinated Bowl fragments yet recovered in Cumbria. Lipid analysis identified dairy fats within nine of these sherds. This was consistent with previous larger studies but represents the first evidence that dairying was an important component of Early Neolithic subsistence strategies in Cumbria. In addition, two deliberately broken polished stone axes, an Arran pitchstone core, a small number of flint tools and debitage, and a tuff flake were retrieved. The site also produced moderate amounts of charred grain, hazelnut shell, charcoal, and burnt bone. Most of the charred grain came from an Early Neolithic pit and potentially comprises the largest assemblage of such material recovered from Cumbria to date. Radiocarbon dating indicated activity sometime during the 40th–35th centuries cal bc as well as an earlier presence during the 46th–45th centuries. Later activity during the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age was also demonstrated. The dense concentration of material and the fragmentary and abraded nature of the pottery suggested redeposition from an above-ground midden. Furthermore, the data recovered during the investigation has wider implications regarding the nature and use of the surrounding landscape during the Early Neolithic and suggests higher levels of settlement permanence, greater reliance on domesticated resources, and a possible different topographical focus for settlement than currently proposed.

Polished stone axes from Varna/Nössingbühel and Castelrotto/Grondlboden, South Tyrol (Italy)

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1519-1531 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Bernardini ◽  
A. De Min ◽  
D. Lenaz ◽  
Zs. Kasztovszky ◽  
V. Lughi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Tyrol ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

Was therereallya Neolithic in Norway?

Antiquity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (267) ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Prescott
Keyword(s):  
Far North ◽  
Temperate Europe ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

For temperate Europe, the transition to the Neolithic is still both defined by a shift from a hunter-gatherer to a farming economy and archaeologically recognized by its characteristic artefacts of pottery and polished-stone axes. But what should be the criteria in the far north of Nordic Europe, where the definition of a Neolithic is a less straightforward issue?

The Neolithic Quarries and Axe Factory Sites of Great Langdale and Scafell Pike: A New Field Survey

1989 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Claris ◽  
James Quartermaine ◽  
A. R. Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Field Survey ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
Lake District ◽  
High Scale ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
Massive Scale ◽  
Group A ◽  
Main Production ◽  
Production Areas ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

The central massif of the Lake District around Great Langdale and Scafell Pike was one of the major locations for the production of Neolithic, polished stone axes. In response to the continuing erosion of the axe production sites a field survey was undertaken in 1984 and 1985. 566 distinct working sites were identified, within 35 groups; each site was recorded and the site data and high-scale survey plans are presented in microfiche. A fourfold categorization of the working sites is suggested which relates production methods to significant geological, topographic and geomorphic elements of the landscape. The quantity of axe waste, particularly in the Langdale area, confirms that production was on a massive scale and the variations in strategy and methods of extraction suggest a development through time towards greater sophistication and organization. Estimates of relative flake quantities for each group of sites have been used to compare the varying levels of activity at each group. A similar analysis was used to estimate the extent to which differing strategies were used at the two main production areas. Petrographic analysis of the outcrops which were exploited and the debitage associated with axe manufacture suggest that it may be possible to attribute dispersed products to specific production areas.

Petrology and Schedules of Stone Artefacts

1987 ◽  
Vol 53 (s1) ◽  
pp. 64-70
Author(s):  
R W Sanderson ◽  
F G Dimes
Keyword(s):  
Geological Sciences ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

The worked stone, other than sarsen, was kindly examined macroscopically by Mr R W Sanderson of the Petrological Department of the Institute of Geological Sciences, and the following notes were compiled from his verbal comments. Apart from the polished stone axes, the majority of the rocks are not very distinctive in type, and except for a few specimens (eg S2, S15, and S20 and possibly S3, S6, and S5), it has not been possible to identify their sources.

Mineralogical and Chemical Constraints on the Provenance of Copper Age Polished Stone Axes of ‘Ljubljana Type’ from Caput Adriae

Archaeometry ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Bernardini ◽  
A. De Min ◽  
D. Lenaz ◽  
Z. Kasztovszky ◽  
P. Turk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Copper Age ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians

1952 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauriston Sharp
Keyword(s):  
West Coast ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
The West ◽  
Cape York ◽  
Aboriginal Groups ◽  
Hunting And Fishing ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

Like other Australian aboriginals, the Yir Yoront group which lives at the mouth of the Coleman River on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula originally had no knowledge of metals. Technologically their culture was of the old stone age or paleolithic type. They supported themselves by hunting and fishing, and obtained vegetables and other materials from the bush by simple gathering techniques. Their only domesticated animal was the dog; they had no cultivated plants of any kind. Unlike some other aboriginal groups, however, the Yir Yoront did have polished stone axes hafted in short handles which were most important in their economy.

scholarly journals The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of the “elm decline”: A Case Study from Yorkshire and Humberside, United Kingdom

Radiocarbon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 1321-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seren Griffiths ◽  
Benjamin R Gearey
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Domestic Plant ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
Animal Resources ◽  
Polished Stone Axes

ABSTRACTThe Neolithic in Britain saw the first appearance of domestic plant and animal resources, pottery, polished stone axes, monuments, and new house structures. With the introduction of domesticates and associated subsistence strategies, the Neolithic represents a significant change in human–environment interaction. Other changes have been observed in the palynological record of Britain in the early fourth millennium cal BC, including the elm decline, and archaeologists and paleobotanists have long discussed the degree of human involvement in this. This paper presents the first Bayesian statistical analysis of the elm decline using the case study of the east of Yorkshire and Humberside and key sites in west Yorkshire, and evidence for the last hunter-gatherer Mesolithic material culture and the first Neolithic material culture record. This region is critical because it is the only area of Britain and Ireland where we have robust and accurate published estimates for the timing of the latest Mesolithic activity and timing for the earliest Neolithic activity. Unpacking this perceived chronological correlation between the elm decline and the start of the Neolithic is critical to understanding the scale of human–environment modification at this time, and the nature of the first Neolithic societies in Britain.

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