This flint axe blank is from near the Spiennes flint mines near Mons, Belgium.  The Spiennes mines were active during the Neolithic period between 6300 and 4200 BP, and this axe blank is probably from the Michelberg Culture of Central Europe, which dates from ca. 6400-5500 BP.

Sandro Elbers, artefact number AXH-NEO-001.

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Stone axes appear in the European Mesolithic period by about 10,000 BP and proliferated during the Neolithic, from about 7500 to 3700 BP.  Hundreds of thousands of stone axes have been found across Europe, and they are one of the most common tool types of the Neolithic.  Most researchers believe that they were an essential tool for clearing forests for agriculture.  An array of different axe forms were made and used across this period, but most varieties had cutting edges produced by grinding—referred to in Europe as ‘polished’ axes.  Some types were completely ground across all of their surfaces, while the grinding on others was limited to the cutting edge.  Grinding was a laborious process, particularly on flint axes.  Cross sections ranged from rectangular to lenticular or nearly round, and axes varied considerably in shape and size.  Axes of prized stone were traded widely between Neolithic groups across Europe.

Axes were set into a hole made in a wood shaft handle.  Because the axes tapered backwards from the cutting edge, they wedged into the hole with use.  Several stone axes have been recovered from sites with the handle still intact.  An ‘axe’ was hafted with the cutting edge parallel to the shaft, and an ‘adze’ was hafted with the cutting edge at right-angles to the shaft.  The edge is centred on an axe, but offset from the centre on an adze.

Stone shaft-hole axes (or ‘battle axes’), usually made of igneous or metamorphic stones, appeared by about 4800 BP and persisted into the Bronze Age.  These were often ornate in shape and were perforated to receive a relatively thin wood handle.  The perforation was drilled using a hollow bone or wood.  Stone axes with pecked grooves (‘saddle-grooved’ axes) were made and used during the Bronze Age in Bavaria alongside metal axes, and grooved stone axes were used to mine and process copper ore in southern Italy.

Large  ‘prestige’ axes, often expertly made of spectacular stones, were interred in graves or buried together in caches.  While some caches included only unused prestige axes, others included axes in all stages of use and repair.  In Denmark alone, 171 caches, comprising about 500 axes, have been found and reported.  One author notes that, in Sweden, stone axes ‘were deposited in almost every single bog’, probably as part of ritual activity.  These various patterns suggest that axes were not only functional tools, but were also important in a social context.  Their symbolic importance continued into the more recent past: ancient stone axes were collected from archaeological sites since Medieval times as amulets that provided protection to life and property.

The Michelsberg Culture emerged in northeastern France ca. 6400 BP and likely originated by a migration of people from the Paris Basin to the west.  The culture expanded from there to central Germany, Belgium, and the southwestern Netherlands.  This expansion was associated with violence and fortified villages, and introduced agriculture through the region, including Scandinavia and the British Isles.  The Michelsberg Culture transitioned into the Funnelbeaker Culture of Northern Europe.  Michelsberg people farmed barley and emmer wheat, and raised cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats.  They supplemented their diet by hunting.