Unusual NC Axes
Most ancient stone grooved axes found in the Carolinas were made from granite and greenstone. These Early to Late Archaic Period tools were apparently made for cutting down trees and various other camp site tasks such as chopping fire wood and building shelters. They were made in a variety of sizes but most were originally six to eight inches in length, though many are, today, much smaller due to prehistoric re-sharpening, thus having their length decreased. These ancient cutting tools are not common but occasionally one of them will be found that is even rarer than the rest. This article covers two of these uncommon NC axes.
In the photograph shown here, is a three-quarter grooved axe that is made of basalt which is an igneous rock of volcanic origin. It came from the magma extruded from a volcanic eruption that settled on the earth surface and cooled rapidly. It is usually fine-grained and black to dark grey in color and is primarily composed of the minerals calcic feldspar and pyroxene olivine but may also contain iron oxides, ilmenite and magnetite ulvospinal. Because of the magnetic type minerals in its composition, basalt quite often has the properties of attracting like materials and thus is used in paleo-magnetic research. Basalt is a fairly common mineral on earth and forms much of our oceans floors, but it is only found reasonably near volcanoes, either contemporary or ancient. In the Piedmont, the Uwharrie Mountains in the central part of North Carolina, were volcanoes millions of years ago and did produce, through volcanic eruptions, minerals including basalt. This axe is an oddity because is might be considered a miniature since it is only 3 7/8 inches long. Stone axes of this size are not extremely rare because these tools were re-sharpened to short lengths before being discarded as being too small and light in weight to function for cutting. But this axe, which was found along the Dan River just east of the town of Eden in Rockingham County, NC, shows no signs of ever being re-sharpened. It is well polished and well made and was apparently fashioned in this rather small size. Could it be that the artisan only had a small piece of the volcanic stone with which to work? Or perhaps was it made as a training tool and/or a toy for a favorite child? These are unanswerable questions.
The other axe shown in this report is made of heavily patinated dark tan quartzite. This compact granular mineral is a form of metamorphosed sandstone and that is composed mostly of silica quartz in colors of off-white to tan to brown to red. Quartzite nodules are reasonably abundant in North Carolina but the stone was rarely used for the manufacture of axes in the region. If quartzite was made into an axe tool, it was probably flaked to basic shape and then pecked, ground and polished to the final form. This axe, which was found along the Haw River in northern Guilford County, NC, was originally much larger as there is evidence of considerable prehistoric re-sharpening which reduced the size to this 3 ¾ inch length and then probably discarded as unusable.
These two modest sized tools are among the smallest in my collection but they are also among my favorites because of the rare materials. Probably less than one half of one per cent of all ancient stone axes, produced in North Carolina, were made of basalt and/or quartzite. The small sizes, rare minerals and superb beauty are three good reasons to consider them Unusual NC Axes.
REFERENCES:
Coe, Joffre L.
“The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont”,
TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSIPHICAL SOCIETY
1964
Hothem, Lar
INDIAN AXES AND RELATED STONE ARTIFACTS
1989
Hranicky, Wm. Jack
PREHISTORIC AXES, CELTS, BANNERSTONES AND OTHER LARGE
TOOLS IN VIRGINIA AND VARIOUS STATES
1995
Maus, James E.
“Two Rare North Carolina Axes”,
CENTRAL STATES ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL, vol. 50, No. 3
2003