Danish Stone Age. Core axe in flint. Hunter Stone Age: 8800-4800 BC.

Danish Stone Age. Core axe in flint. Hunter Stone Age: 8800-4800 BC.

Provenance: Hidrører old Danish antiquities collection.

Find location: Zealand/Funen.

Literature: FLINT from Denmark's antiquity. By Peter Vang Petersen. Page 98-99.

Dimensions approximately: 10,5x3,5x2,8 cm.

Stand: see images.

The Maglemose culture was a hunter-gatherer culture in the early Mesolithic in South Scandinavia and North Germany, around 9000-6400 BC. The name comes from a settlement on Zealand. The culture is known for flint tools, bone and antler, as well as early signs of settlements near lakes and bogs.

Core axes were produced from smaller, often irregular flint nodules that were not suitable for other tools. The shape emerged by chiseling excess flint from along two side edges, and remnants of the original edge are often seen on the sides. The egg shape was formed early by opposite-angle blows that met at a pointed spine.

Core axes required less raw material and were easier to sharpen than blade axes, and they dominated through the Maglemose-, Kongemose- and older Ertebølle periods. Wear marks and finds show that they were used for woodworking, often with a handle as a cross-axis type. This type disappears in the farming Stone Age.