Exploring axe heads from Prehistoric Britain

Despite being thousands of years old, Stone Age tools can often be found in museum collections around the country. Axes would have been an especially vital to the agricultural revolution during the Neolithic or New Stone Age, with the axe heads now attached to wooden shafts, in contrast to the hand axes from earlier in the Stone Age. However, did some of them also have another, symbolic value?

The Stone Age

Neolithic flint axe head
Malton Museum, North Yorkshire

Flint was a crucial material for making tools and weapons throughout the different periods of the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic). Its widespread use has left behind many artefacts.

Flint was an ideal material for making tools because it can be easily shaped, or ‘knapped’, to create sharp edges. Tools made from flint, such as arrowheads, scrapers, and knives, were widely used by early humans.

Axe heads could often been worked until they were smoothed, with a polished cutting edge, although this example has been less-worked suggesting it was made more quickly.

Flint is often found in areas where limestone or chalk is present, as it forms within these rock types. Recent studies, however, have now suggested that not all flint is created equal and that flint from some regions is better for knapping than that from others.

Though this axe head is in the collection at Malton Museum in Yorkshire, the flint itself may have originated elsewhere, for example in Norfolk.

Stone Age Axe made of flint, from Malton Museum
Stone Age Axe made of flint, from Malton Museum

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Neolithic jadeite axe head
Craven Museum & Gallery, Skipton, North Yorkshire

Though this special prehistoric object in Craven Museum collection was found at Kirkby Lonsdale in the Yorkshire Dales, its material links into directly to the Italian Alps. It’s likely from the effort required to source, transport and craft this hard mineral that axes like this may have been more than just a useful cutting tool.

Some historians suggest that they were symbols of prestige and power, owned by people of high status. As well as being beautiful to look at, objects like this also give us insights into prehistoric trade routes.

 

Prehistoric Jadeite Axe Head from Craven Museum & Gallery, Skipton

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Neolithic stone axe head
Brora Heritage, Brora, The Highlands of Scotland

Axe heads in a variety of different materials have been found across Britain. Taken together, we get a picture of Neolithic people using a range of different natural materials. Like the jadeite axe head from North Yorkshire, this lovely, carefully-shaped example from Brora Heritage in the Highlands of Scotland might also have been a ritualistic object.

Can you spot the chip in the rounded end? The axe’s owner may well have been very disappointed to have damaged it.

Archaeological evidence like this has shown that prehistoric people had lived In the Highlands from as early as the Mesolithic period (around 8000 BCE). 

Stone axe head from Brora Heritage

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At a glance…

Activity Explore the best materials for axes. What would you choose for your axe if you lived during the Stone Age?


The Bronze Age

Bronze age copper axe heads

It’s possible to explore the development of axes over time through archaeological finds. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin and is much harder and more durable than the stones typically used to make Neolithic axes. After sharpening, the bronze blade would be much sharper than previous stone axes and, if broken or worn-out, the bronze blade could be melted down and reforged so that materials were not wasted.

From Ullapool Museum, Highlands of Scotland

Environmental evidence shows that the Bronze Age was a period of large-scale deforestation in the Highlands. Tools like this would have been very important in that process. It was discovered in the garden of a house in Rhue, near Ullapool. Like the other examples, the wooden handle hasn’t survived.

Find out more about this axe head on the Museum of the Highlands.

From Ullapool Museum, photo by Jim Dunn

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From Scarborough Castle, courtesy of Scarborough Museum and Galleries

Not only did the materials available for use for weapons change from the Stone Age, but also to the shape. The versatility of bronze has allowed this axe to be cast with a socket, into which a handle would clearly have been inserted.

A leather or twine tie would have been passed through the loop, possibly to reinforce the handle. The ribbed surface was not just a decorative feature. The ribs would also have helped to strengthen the head. This axe was found with other items of Bronze Age metalwork in pits on the headland at Scarborough Castle.

Bronze Age axe head from Scarborough

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From the Stone Age to the Bronze Age

Spot the Difference – axe designs developed a lot from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. How many differences can your group find? You might want to do this as a quick, timed activity using mini whiteboards.

Talking Points

Comparing Neolithic axes

Why do you think we rarely use hand axes for chopping down trees today? What do we use instead?

Can you think of other kinds of tools that may have been used to help farm the land?

Why do you think the flint axe head from Malton Museum has been left rough? Why do you think its maker decided not to polish and smooth it?

Why do you think the axe heads needed to be made of hard materials?

Have you ever used sandpaper to smooth or polish an object? What can you remember about the process? Did you find it easy?

What qualities of the jadeite axe from Craven Museum made it special?

How do you think the owner of the stone axe from Brora Heritage would have felt upon realising the axe had been chipped?

 

Talking Points

Explore Bronze Age axes

Look carefully at the axe? The surface has a greenish layer or patina. What do you think caused it?

Why do you think it has an extra loop of metal. What might have gone through the hole?

How do you think this axe head was attached to the wooden handle?

What other details can you spot?

In what ways would the Bronze Age axe have been superior to the Late Stone Age (Neolithic) examples? What new features do you think would have helped prehistoric people? 

Vocabulary

Neolithic: the final period of the Stone Age, known as the New Stone Age, from roughly 4,000 to 2,000 BCE. It was a time when farming and agriculture were becoming established and communities were starting to settle in one place 

Bronze Age: the period after the Stone Age. It dates from approximately 2,000 to 700 BCE (although the exact dates vary across Europe and the rest of the world). Bronze was increasingly the main metal used for toolmaking.

In the Classroom

Role play a scene

Imagine finding an object that could be a prehistoric tool. Role play the scene in pairs, with one person believing it to be a prehistoric tool and the other doubting.

How might they try to persuade each other?

Hands on History

Across North Yorkshire, schools can take part in a Stone Age to Iron Age‘ workshop to explore prehistoric tools at Craven Museum in Skipton and a ‘Stone Age Scarborough’ workshop from Scarborough Museums and Galleries.

There are loan boxes to borrow across North Yorkshire, including from Craven Museum in Skipton, the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes and Malton Museum.

Click on the pins on the map to find out more about the museums and sites with prehistoric axe heads in Yorkshire.

Click on the pins on the map to find out more about the museums and sites with prehistoric axe heads in the Highlands of Scotland.

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