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Polished stone axe — Stone axehead — Greek, ca. 5000–4000 BCE
Stone axehead — Greek, ca. 5000–4000 BCE — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Andrés A. Mata, in memory of Elodia Mata, 2004, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access, CC0

Celt · Neolithic

Polished stone axe

5500–2500 BCE, Linearbandkeramik

The polished stone axe is the woodworking tool of the European Neolithic, about 5,500 to 2,500 BCE, ground and polished from flint or fine-grained rock and hafted in a wooden sleeve. Axes travelled far from quarries such as Langdale, Plussulien and Rijckholt, and some were made in jadeitite for display. It is the commonest Neolithic find in Britain and Europe.

ObjectCelt
Dates5500–2500 BCE
PeriodNeolithic
CulturesLinearbandkeramik
RegionsEurope — Western & Central, Europe — Northern & British Isles, Europe — Mediterranean

Diagnostic traits

Ground and polished axe head of flint or fine-grained rock with an oval or rectangular section; petrological groups identify quarries.

Identification

Neolithic axes are ground over the whole surface with an oval or rectangular section and a symmetrical bit, unlike Bronze Age flat axes in metal and unlike American celts, which are often only partly ground. Petrological groups identify sources. Flint axes may retain flake scars under the polish.

Reproductions and fakes

Reproduced on power grinders with parallel striations and no differential patina; genuine axes show hand-polish facets and edge damage. Jadeitite axes are faked in modern jade.

Photographs

Polished stone axe — Polished Stone Axe (Masei sekifu) — Japan
Polished Stone Axe (Masei sekifu) — Japan — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access, CC0

Age

Cultures

Elsewhere

  • met: 257672
Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Polished stone axe" (Artifact type). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/types/polished-stone-axe. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-polished-stone-axe,
  title        = {Polished stone axe},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/types/polished-stone-axe}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Artifact type article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, met. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

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