This shaft-hole axe made from igneous stone, and was recovered from an archaeological site in Denmark. The axe was made by the people of the ‘Battle Axe Culture‘, ca. 4350-4800 BP.

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See the annotations for technological details about this stone tool.

The artefact is in the Michigan State University Museum, Archaeology Teaching Collection, catalogue no. 2003.38.3.

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The Battle Axe people occupied coastal areas of southern Scandinavia during the Chalcolithic, a period of cultural migration and upheaval in Europe following the Neolithic period.  The Battle Axe culture was part of a larger archaeological horizon referred to as Corded Ware.  A similar culture to Battle Axe is found in Denmark and Northern European Plain, referred to as the Single Grave culture.  The Battle Axe culture is thought to have derived from the Yamnaya expansion westwards from the Baltic Sea, as suggested by archaeological and genetic evidence.  Analysis of ancient DNA has shown that modern Northern European people are genetically related to people of the Battle Axe culture.