An Exceptional Virginia Axe
When the Paleo Period Asian people crossed the frozen Bering Sea land bridge, 12,000 or more years ago, they most likely carried their immediate belongings, portable lodging materials and maybe some food plus their long thrusting spears that were used for dispatching animals or enemies encountered along the way. They also probably brought with them, though it has not been clearly proven, chipped stone axe heads hafted into bone or wood handles. These axes would have been used to cut fire wood and probably also assisted in the butchering animals for meals. These chipped stone axes would certainly have functioned well for their purposes but at sometime, most likely during the Early Archaic Period beginning around ten thousand years in the past, these natives began making other types of grooved axes that were pecked and ground to shape versus the chipped variety. Why this happened is a great mystery but we cannot question the beauty of these grooved tools, such as this exceptional Virginia axe.
We will probably never know exactly why these ancient Americans began making the pecked and ground axe heads in place of the chipped variety. The flaked stone axe heads should have been much quicker and easier to make and re-sharpening them would also have also been much easier and quicker – just a few quick pops with an elk antler flaking tool and a new sharp cutting edge would have been obtained. With the pecked axe head, the cutting edge or bit would have been laboriously ground against a whet stone until a keen cutting edge was made which may have taken hours or even days of time. But in terms of visual pleasure to ones senses, the pecked axes certainly do prevail.
The process of making a pecked and ground axe head would have been for the artisan to first find a suitable rock. Many types of stone have been used to make these axes but in the Southeast most of them, that have been found, are granite or greenstone with fewer being made of such minerals as quartz, diorite and quartzite. Once a rock of the size and basic shape was found, the axe maker simply began pounding the mineral’s surface with a hard hammer stone in the process known as pecking. This very gradually altered the shape and size of the projected axe head to what the maker wanted. Depending on just what was desired, the craftsman could have stopped at that point so as to begin sharpening the cutting bit. Or the proposed axe head could have been polished, using fine sand and a carrier such as water or animal fat, which would have kept the sharpened knife edge more acute for a longer time before re-sharpening was necessary. The act of axe sharpening would have been to rub the bit end of the tool against a coarse sandstone type mineral until the degree of desired keenness was accomplished. The earliest of these pecked and ground tools were what are called full groove axes. The maker, while pecking the axe to shape, would have pecked a groove near the poll end for the purpose of having a place to haft a handle. These grooves were pecked fully across both faces and edges of the axe head while leaving at least two-thirds of the total length in the bit end of the tool. We do not know exactly when the ancients stopped making the full groove axes and began making what is known as a three-quarter groove axe, which were made like the full groove variety except the groove was only cut into both faces but only one edge. A reasonable guess is that the natives began making the full groove axes around 8,000 BC and the three quarter variety about 5,000 BC. But they were most likely both being simultaneously made and used during much of this time with the production of grooved axes ending around two thousand years ago in favor of the un-grooved variety known as celts. There is no way to know exactly how many grooved axes have been found in the South, especially in the Carolinas and Virginia, but an estimate would be probably more than ten thousand, of which, there have been about equal numbers of the full and three-quarter grooved varieties discovered. Most of these were obviously working axes and show the wear and tear that would be expected of a tree felling tool. Many do not exhibit great polish but this may be because of the very acidic regional soils that would certainly have “eaten” into the surface of any stone tool buried for thousands of years thus destroying the smooth polish. Many, also, have chips on the poll end of the axe where the hafted tool would have been pounded with a hammer stone or another axe so as to assist in the cutting chores. We, today, consider these items to be artifacts or ancient art but to the natives, they were just implements used in their daily existence. One type of axe, though, seems to be more of a ceremonial or art contrivance rather than a working tool – the raised ridge axe.
The raised ridge axe is a unique tool variety and has been found in the Southeast, mostly in the mountains and foothills, but an almost identical type has been found in the modern state of Michigan. The raised ridge axe is usually a full groove type with the hafting groove extending across both faces and both edges of the implement. But along with the groove, this axe type has raised semi-circular ridges alongside the furrow. These ridged crests extend past the edges of the axe and gives the tool another of its names – the barbed axe. The raised ridge axes usually have a blade that is about three-quarters of the total length of the tool and is reasonably wide. These implements are themselves somewhat large, normally in the seven to nine inch long region but have been found as small as five inches and as large as twelve inches or more and usually show very little to no traces of re-sharpening or any use as a cutting tool. Another similar axe type is normally found in the modern state of Ohio and is called a trophy axe. These trophy axes often have the raised ridges alongside the hafting groove and also normally show no obvious signs of any ancient usage and are often made of quartz or quartzite. Some southern raised ridge axes are thick but most are reasonably thin considering the large overall length and width. The raised ridges or barbs are an enigma in themselves. What was their purpose? It may have been simply for stylistic integrity or, since many of these axes are large, it may also have been for stability. The oversize ridged humps may have been included in the shape of these tools to act as stabilizers in the handle haft much the same way as outriggers do for large ocean going canoes. The blades on these tools are usually about the same width as the poll end and the bit end may be rounded or straight with the poll being in a radius or straight or in a conical shape. The ages of these tools covers much speculation with conjecture being as old as eight thousand years and as young as a couple thousand. They were apparently made during much of the same period as the regular full grooved axes as well as the three-quarter variety. In fact, some few of the raised ridge type tools fall into the three-quarter groove category. Many collectors today believe that they are in the three to six thousand years old range, but that is pure speculation. They are uncommon, in the Southeast, with maybe a few hundred known to have been found in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and both Carolinas.
The raised ridge axe pictured with this article was a plowed field surface find in Washington County, Virginia and is 9 5/8 inches long by 6 5/8 inches wide at the ridges and is made of heavily patinated grey/brown granite. It, like most of these axes, is very well made and shows no signs of ever being re-sharpened or used as a cutting device. It is thin and wide and a little longer than the average of the type. And the workmanship is extraordinary. This writer has collected, seen and handled probably over a couple hundred of these axes and this one would certainly fall into the top ten per cent in terms of overall symmetry and beauty. It is difficult to fathom the amount of time the ancient axe maker spent fashioning this artifact but it must have been many weeks or even months. And then it was probably not used as a cutting device. Some archaeologists speculate that the prehistoric natives of this continent made a single grooved axe during their youth and used it until their death. But that would have been working axes – not this type. Why did the axe maker spend many hours in the making of such a unique and not to be used tool? Was it made as a funerary object to be interred with a beloved relative? Was it made as a ceremonial implement for some society leader? Or maybe it was made by a superior stone worker to simply show off his ability? We will never know answers to these questions but that should not deter us from understanding the rarity and beauty of this exceptional Virginia axe.
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