Grooved axe from the Neolithic period, 6000-200 BC.
Stone.
Provenance: private collection, Mézières-lez-Clery, France. Acquired by inheritance in 2022.
In good state of preservation.
Measurements: 15.5 x 5.5 x 4 cm.
This lithic axe has been worked from a single block of carved stone. It has a grooved surface at one end, most probably for the placement of a handle.
The archaeological find of lithic industry (stone tools) is a clear sign of human activity and progress. During the Neolithic period, the lithic industry reached a high degree of skill and evolution (in fact, the very name "Neolithic" -new stone- responds to a new way of working stone, which will be polished as opposed to the carved stone of the Palaeolithic, a change that represented a real technological revolution). During the Neolithic period, sickles, hoes, knives and axes such as the one we are now presenting began to be made, which helped in the processes of agriculture and stockbreeding and to dominate the environment. As a result, peasant populations secured their livelihoods and were thus able to become sedentary.
The organisation and way of life of primitive people can be known through knowledge of the tools they used. While the study of the tools used during the Palaeolithic allows us to know that they practised gathering, fishing and hunting, the progressive appearance of more complex lithic industries is interpreted in parallel with the birth of farming and stockbreeding societies.