SDO10289 - First report of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western group of museums and art galleries on the petrological identification of stone axes; Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society

This paper provides an interim report on the work of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western group of Museums and Art Galleries in their efforts to identify the petrological origins of numerous stone axes held in private collections and museums. This work was hoped to elucidate on the nature of trade during the prehistoric period. In order to achieve reliable results the sub-committee undertook to extract thin sections from the axes. They then sub-divided the axes into nine groups with similar petrological characteristics. Group 1 axes were deemed to have been manufactured from dark green or greyish green igneous rock, probably Gabbro, epidorite or greenstone from the Devon and Cornwall region. An exact match for the axes had not been found at the time of publication. Axes of this group were mainly found in Somerset, Dorset, South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. This includes no. 106; an axe from Sherborne in the C.E. Bean collection, no. 93; an axe from Abbotsbury held at Dorset County Museum (Acc. No. 1891.1.1), no.92; an axe from Holwell Marsh, near Cranborne and held at the DCM (Acc. No. 1886.5.1). This forms an important group of 28 axes with identical petrology, suggesting the production of a large number of axes from a single small quarry. Group 3 axes were of very similar composition to those of group 1 and were thought to derive from an area SE of Marazion, between Venton and Trevelyan Cove. This group includes a ?flaked-down axe from Jordan Hill, Preston, Weymouth and held at the Dorset County Museum (Acc. No. 1885-16.110). Group 4 axes were also igneous greenstones from the Devon or Cornwall area, but not definitely identified with a particular site. This group included an axe from Bridport Road, near Dorchester held at the Dorset County Museum (Acc. No. (1894.2.1).