Axes, Adzes, and Clubs

Axes were made by flaking and/or hammer-dressing the blank to a roughly oval shape, then grinding a sharp edge on one end. The edge was ground to both faces, centring it. Edge-ground axes were mounted onto handles, like a modern hatchet.

The first edge-ground axes in the world appear in the archaeological record of Australia over 40,000 years ago. Eventually edge-ground stone axes were independently invented in all parts of the world. Stone axes were made in a diversity of shapes and sizes, reflecting their different historical roots, combined with the types of stone they were made from, and the methods used to affix them to handles. Metamorphic and volcanic stones were often used for axes because of the durability of these materials, but many were made from flint or chert where those materials were abundant.

Stone axes were hafted with the cutting edge parallel to the handle, but a variant of stone axes, called adzes, were hafted with the cutting edge at a right angle to the handle, much like a modern hoe. The cutting edge of an adze is offset towards one face, unlike the centred edge seen on stone axes. Stone axes were sometimes made with grooves or waists for hafting, and the cutting edges on some types of axes were made entirely by flaking.

Stone axes were highly prized and traded widely by many prehistoric societies. Prestige axes were often larger than day-to-day axes, or were made from precious stone, or show exceptionally skilled craftsmanship. Some were decorated or shaped with cultural iconography. Prestige axes were sometimes entirely ceremonial and not used for utilitarian tasks.

Axe grinding grooves are a type of archaeological site created by edge-ground axe manufacture. These are bedrock outcrops or boulders of abrasive stone, such as sandstone, marked by many grooves resulting from grinding the edges on axes. Axe grinding grooves often occur near water, which was used to speed up the grinding process. Sometimes hundreds or even thousands of grooves are found at these sites, which were sometimes used repeatedly for thousands of years.

Clubs and maces are stones that were made in a similar way to axes, out of similar types of stone, but the working part was rounded rather than sharpened. They were presumably used for pounding things, although maces may have been prestige objects.