This slate shaft-hole axe was broken in manufacture or repair.  The axe is from the Bylany site in the Czech Republic, and dates to ca. 6400-7000 BP.

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Shaft-hole axes appeared across Europe during the Neolithic period, with elaborate ceremonial examples most famously associated with the Battle Axe Culture which arose around 4800 BP in southern Scandinavia.  This slate shaft-hole axe was broken in manufacture or repair. The axe was broken before the hole was completely drilled through.  The hole was drilled with a hollow bit, like a reed or bone, using an abrasive.

The artefact is curated by the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

See the annotations for technological details about this stone tool.

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The Bylany site in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic, is a large Neolithic settlement dating to the Linear Pottery and Stroked Pottery periods.  Excavations there spanning 40 years have discovered 25 settlement phases dating between 6900-7350 BP.  The settlement covers about 7 hectares and excavations have uncovered 144 houses of various types—including small, medium, and long-houses—as well as 1045 refuse and storage pits, ditches, and lines of postholes and earthworks suggesting the presence of a palisade or ceremonial enclosure.  One study found that refuse from occupied houses was discarded onto abandoned structures.  The site is one of the earliest large-scale Neolithic settlements in Central Europe.