Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:11:06.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Alexander Keiller ,
Stuart Piggott  and
F. S. Wallis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 7 , 1941 , pp. 50 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1941

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S. 1938. ‘A hoard of Neolithic axes from Peaslake, Surrey,’ Ant. J., vol. XVIII, 279–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunnington, B. Howard. 1924. ‘The “Blue Stone” from Boles Barrow,’ Wilts. Arch. and N.H. Mag., vol. XLII, 431–437.Google Scholar
Cunnington, M. E. 1929. Woodhenge. Devizes.Google Scholar
Cunnington, M. E. 1932. ‘The “Sanctuary” on Overton Hill, near Avebury,’ Wilts. Arch. and N. H. Mag., vol. XLV (1930–1932), 300–335.Google Scholar
Curwen, Eliot. 1928. ‘Notes on some uncommon types of stone implements found in Sussex,’ Sussex Arch. Colls., vol. LXIX, 77–91.Google Scholar
Dunning, G. C. 1937 (for 1936). ‘Stone Axe from Foxcote, Andoversford, Gloucestershire,’ Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc., vol. 58, 284–285.Google Scholar
Evans, E. Estyn. 1938. ‘Doey's Cairn, Dunloy, Co. Antrim,’ Ulster J. Arch. (3rd series), I, 59–78.Google Scholar
Fox, Charles F. 1929. ‘Dolerite celt from Hampshire,’ Ant. J., vol. IX, 377–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glenn, T. A. 1935. ‘Distribution of the Graig Lwyd axe and its associated cultures,’ Arch. Cambr., vol. XC, 189–218.Google Scholar
Godwin, H. 1940. ‘Studies of the Post-Glacial History of British vegetation,’ Phil. Trans, of Royal Soc., Series B, no. 570, vol. 230, 260 and pl. 21.Google Scholar
Gray, H. St. George. 1902. ‘The Walter Collection in Taunton Castle Museum,’ Proc. Somerset Arch. and N. H. Soc., vol. XLVIII, pt. 11, 24–78.Google Scholar
Grimes, W. F. 1932. ‘Prehistoric Archaeology in Wales since 1925,’ Proc. Prehist. Soc. of East Anglia, vol. 7, pt. 1, 82–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimes, W. F. 1935. ‘Recent books on British Archaeology,’ Antiquity, vol. IX, 424–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartley, J. J. 1932. ‘The Volcanic and other igneous rocks of Great and Little Langdale, West-moreland,’ Proc Geol. Ass., vol. 43, 32–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Head, J. F. 1938. ‘The excavation of the Cop Round Barrow, Bledlow,’ Records of Bucks., vol. XIII, pt. 5, 313–351.Google Scholar
Head, J. F. 1939. ‘The excavation of the Cop Round Barrow, Bledlow,’ Records of Bucks., vol. XIII, pt. 6, 440–441.Google Scholar
Hemp, W. J. 1936 (for 1935). ‘The Chambered Cairn known as Bryn yr Hen Bobl, near Plas Newydd, Anglesey,’ Archaeologia, vol. LXXXV, 253–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keiller, Alexander. 1936. ‘Two axes of Presely stone from Ireland,’ Antiquity, vol. X, 220–221, pls. V and VI.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keiller, Alexander. 1937a. ‘Petrological analysis. An appeal on behalf of the Sub-Committee of the South-western Group of Museums and Art Galleries,’ Antiquity, vol. XI, 484–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keiller, Alexander. 1937b. ‘The Petrology of the Stone implements. Scheme for the Examination of Stone Implements,’ Museums J., vol. 37, 295–296.Google Scholar
Keiller, Alexander. and Piggott, Stuart. 1936. ‘The Recent Excavations at Avebury,’ Antiquity, vol. X, 417–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowles, W. J. 1903. ‘Stone Axe Factories near Cushendall, Co. Antrim,’ J.R.A.I., vol. XXXIII, 360–366.Google Scholar
Leeds, E. T. 1938. ‘Four polished stone axes,’ Oxoniensia, III, 168 (illustrated).Google Scholar
Liddell, D. M. 1930–1935. ‘Reports on Excavations at Hembury Fort, Devon,’ Devon Arch. Exploration Society.Google Scholar
Lucy, W. C. 1892. ‘A Slight History of Flint Implements,’ Proc. Cott. Nat. F.C., vol. X, 33.Google Scholar
Mellor, A. Shaw. 1929. ‘Stone celt found at Box, Wiltshire,’ Wilts. Arch. and N.H. Mag., vol. XLIV, 264–265.Google Scholar
North, F. J. 1938. ‘Geology for Archaeologists,’ Arch. J., vol. XCIV, 73–115.Google Scholar
North, F. J. 1940. ‘A Geologist amongst the Cairns,’ Antiquity, vol. XIV, 377–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piggott, Stuart. 1935. ‘Two foreign stone axes from Hampshire,’ Proc. Prehist. Soc., vol. I (new series), 154.Google Scholar
Piggott, Stuart. 1937. ‘The Long Barrow in Brittany,’ Antiquity, vol. XI, 441–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, H. F. 1930. ‘Stone Axes found in the Isle of Wight’ Proc. Isle of Wight N.H. and Arch. Soc., vol. II, pt. 1, 25–38.Google Scholar
Pritchard, J. E. 1922. ‘Note on celt at Ozleworth,’ Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc., vol. XLIV, 312.Google Scholar
Stone, J. F. S. 1936. ‘An enclosure on Boscombe Down East,’ Wilts. Arch. and N.H. Mag., vol. XLVII, 466–489.Google Scholar
Thomas, H. H. 1923. ‘The Source of the Stones of Stonehenge,’ Ant. J., vol. III, 239–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, H. H. and Passmore, A. D. 1929. ‘Notes on stone implements of material foreign to Wiltshire, in the collection of Mr A. D. Passmore,’ Wilts. Arch. and N.H. Mag., vol. XLIV, 246–247.Google Scholar
Tomkeieff, S. I. 1940. ‘The dolerite plugs of Tieveragh and Tievebulliagh, near Cushendall, Co. Antrim,’ Geol. Mag., vol. LXXVII, 60–61.Google Scholar
Warne, Charles. 1866. Celtic tumuli of Dorset, pt. 1, 52, pl. 1, fig. A.Google Scholar
Warren, S. Hazzledine. 1919. ‘A Stone-axe factory at Graig Lwyd, Penmaenmawr,’ J.R.A.I., vol. XLIX, 342–365.Google Scholar
Warren, S. Hazzledine. 1921. ‘A Stone-axe factory at Graig Lwyd, Penmaenmawr,’ J.R.A.I., vol. LI, 165–198.Google Scholar