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IV.—The Perforated Axe-hammers of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

Reginald A. Smith
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Extract

A Natural tendency to regard perforated axe-hammers as belonging to the Neolithic period, the Age of polished stone, is soon corrected by a study of the available evidence, which shows that most of the specimens found in Britain date from the Bronze Age, several having been discovered in association with that metal. If any reliance can be placed on the division of the Bronze Age into two parts, characterized respectively by inhumation and cremation, in that order, then it is clear that axe-hammers cover practically the whole of the period, extending over some fifteen centuries. The lower limit is not at present fixed; but there are primitive examples that from their form and method of boring may well be assigned to the Late Stone Age, and there is reason to believe that at least one type was introduced during the period of transition to Bronze—that is, in the Copper or Aeneolithic period.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 75 , 1926 , pp. 77 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1926

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References

page 77 note 1 This is also the view taken in Denmark by Müller, Sophus (Mémoires des Antiquaires du Nord, 1916–1917, pp. 176, 239)Google Scholar, cremation appearing in his third stage (12th century B. C.) and extending in his fourth (11th century); and the rule holds in spite of a Yorkshire discovery of a cremation with a foodvessel below an inhumation with beaker (Mortimer, Forty Years’ Researches, pp. 119, 161) and Canon Greenwell's two beakers with burnt bones (British Barrows, fig. 120, p. 240). Beakers have also been found with cremations at Dilston and Ilderton, Northumberland (Arch. Aeliana, 3rd ser., ii, 142).

page 77 note 2 De Nordiska Stridsyxornas Typologi (Stockholm, 1915), especially pp. 7–13Google Scholar, on the double-edged axes in Britain. A German translation (Die Typologie der nordischen Streitäxte) is published in the Mannus-Bibliothek, no. 17.

page 78 note 1 Man, May 1924, no. 51; cf. Nature, 24 May 1924, p. 761.

page 78 note 1 His Period 1 is the Copper Age, about 2500–2000 B. C

page 83 note 1 Much, in Die Kupferzeit in Europa, p. 214, illustrates a copper specimen of this type from Hungary, bronze from Holstein, and stone from Hungary.

page 96 note 1 Illustrated in Borlase's Nenia Cornubiae, p. 87: cf. Proceedings, v, 482.

page 89 note 1 An axe-hammer of this type was associated with flint-daggers in a barrow at Newark, near Peterborough, but the nature of the burial could not be determined by Mr. Thurlow Leeds (Proceedings, xxiv, 82).

page 89 note 2 No flint dagger has been found with bronze in Britain, and in Scandinavia the flint dagger period includes the later passage-graves and the cists that followed them. Dr. Sophus Müller regards it as the last Neolithic stage, whea bronze was already in use elsewhere in Europe (Mémoires des Antiquaires du Nord, 1916–17, 228).

page 89 note 3 See, for instance, Hans Seger in Schlesiens Vorzeit in Bild und Schrift, N. F. v, 3.

page 97 note 1 Archaeologia, lii, 60, fig. 26; lxi, 109. All three objects are in the British Museum (Bronze Age Guide, 2nd ed., figs. 92, 93).

page 96 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., xxxii, 59 (reproduced by permission, as also figs. 22 and 24).

page 97 note 1 Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xvi (1860), 295Google Scholar, pl. xxv, figs. 8 and 9 (bronze); Trans. Hist. Soc. Lancs, and Cheshire, xii (1860), p. 190.Google Scholar These figures are in perspective, and the diagrams here published for the first time have been drawn by permission of Mr. G. A. Dunlop, Curator of Warrington Museum.

page 98 note 1 Arch. Journ., vi, 74; Evans, Stone2, p. 210.

page 99 note 1 Evans, Stone2, 211, fig. 139; Greenwell, British Barrows, p. 159, fig. 100, note on p. 158; Brit. Mus. Bronze Age Guide2, fig. 94.

page 99 note 2 This is in the British Museum, but in poor condition, the surface peeling off.

page 101 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., liv, 164; xxxv, 219; J. Anderson, Scotland in Pagan Times, p. 106; Evans, Stone, fig. 129.

page 102 note 1 Two views on a small scale are given in Horae Ferales, pl. III, no. 13.