Upper Palaeolithic/Neolithic Hammer Axe

Length:
82mm
Width:
77mm
Depth:
52mm
Weight:
470g

Description

An Fine and very interesting Upper Palaeolithic/Neolithic artefact

Condition report

A Very Good and large donut stone.

this slightly flattened donut stone could have been used as a weight for loom work or fishing; however its large aperture and heavy construction would lend more towards a hammer stone. The central hole would have received a tapered shaft enabling its use as a hammer tool.

in perfect condition, not broken, surely a testament to its makers skill in choosing suitable material in the first instance, showing perhaps generational experience of stone age tool manufacturing.

Historical Provenance

Saharan Neolithic artefacts traded through Africa towards more affluent North Africa.

since the first quarter of the twentieth century when a great interest was resurrected in the ancient world, predominantly by the new finds of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter in the valley of the kings, Egypt, collectors have been sourcing these fine New stone age objects. Many of these tools collected in the twentieth century ended up in collections in Europe. this object is of this lineage and formed part of the collection of a European gentleman.

In the last twenty five years or so a new wave of enthusiasm has seen prices of artefacts steadily rise, this trend will continue as supply diminishes, through trading restrictions and particularly as many borders which once freely allowed nomadic movements are more and more heavily policed, restricting historically naturalistic nomadic trading further, coupled with less open site finds.

Many of these items were collected in open sites. This means found strewn across the open Saharan regions. As nomads traversed the Saharan routes, these objects revealed themselves through erosion and through storms and shifting sands.

Many items have been traded from as far south as Niger, Mali, Senegal and Mauritania, also from the more eastern North African states, Algeria, ,Tunisia and of course Egypt.

Geoffrey Moorhouse traversed the Sahara desert in 1972/3 from the coast of Mauritania to Egypt on foot [3,600 miles], on camel with one guide, an immense feat. On route his book the fearful Void tells of sightings of great Neolithic stone implements scattering the surface of the inner dessert, where the trading routes had been neglected for hundreds of years.