About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

R is for the Real Thing

According to the labels put on it by the seller (some +40-odd years ago), or the collector (I think it was an auction lot) this is a mid-Bronze Age hammer-head. In an axe-like format it was probably used for rough-working wood, for posts, door-frames, cart-parts? That sort of thing; also for post-holes, breaking ground, ditching, digging roots out . . . and chopping dead-wood for firewood? The blunt end would be for banging-in posts or 'nails'; handmade bronze pins, killing livestock and making new hammers!

Other than that I know nothing about it and wouldn't pretend to; when I mentioned it to an archeologist friend of mine (in its absence) I thought it was 'cave man' (i.e. Palaeolithic or Stone Age) and she got quite excited saying "....there's only a few known" but I guess, later metal-age ones are commoner?

Anyway, as part of the occasional ('very occasional' these days, but I hope to have more non-toy stuff go up in the future) 'Other Collectables' thread (which was a separate Blog back at the start of my web-logging), I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, the interesting thing is the double tapered hole which would produce a pinch-point, allowing another hammering-tool or a block of wood, to force it on to a slightly larger-diameter shaft and to then pack the ends with waxed or pitched-rope maybe, before the/any wedges and cross-tying?

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;

Bonze Age; Bronze Age Axe; Bronze Age Hammer; Bronze Age Tool; Chipped Stone; Drilled Stone; Mid Bronze Age; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stone Axe; Stone Hammer; Stone Tool; Stoneware;
I don't know what kind of stone it is either, but you can see it's a fine-grained material, and appears to be a sedimentary rock similar to slate or shale, however from the chip off the 'blade' end you can see the granular look and stepped-edge of something more like a fine granite? It's also bloody heavy!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks genuine to me. I have couple of the same in museum I work at. Age - that could come from wide range of ages. Poor people made them well into roman times...

Hugh Walter said...

Cheers Anon, presumably the ';early' Roman period was also 'bronze' so that would all tie in nicely . . . you couldn't have a stab at the materila from the pictures could you? It seems to fine for granite?

I did google them briefly on Friday and think this is a particularly nicely shaped one, a lot were fatter, blunter or rounder at the pointy-end?

H

Anonymous said...

Hi Hugh,
I think you have some volcanic rock, but don't take it for granted. I'm paleontologist, not petrologist.
Ones I have at museum are from Danube (Vinca culture) but they are more fine and smaller. In fact they made lot of similar stuff well into Roman and Dacian times here (perhaps even Middle age?) - especially fishing net weights and similar. It is not hard to make them in some grain mill and make perfect geometric shapes. Therefore why using expensive metal if this items are for heavy duty use or to be easily lost in the river? But don't let that disappoint you, it may very likely be very old. If you know the location where it was found it would be of more help to you. Local museum might have plenty of similar.
Yvan

Hugh Walter said...

I know what you mean Yvan; sometimes rope and string are better than hammer and nails! Cheers for that, it helps anchor it in the past - as it were!

Maybe I should get a handle on it and use it in the garden . . . it was meant to be be used, huh!

H

Anonymous said...

No, no :) Keep it safe! It is great artifact and it must be very old! Just try to find how old it is.
Y

Hugh Walter said...

;-) Don't worry Yvan, it's a little blunt for the jobs I had in mind!!! I will try to get it dated at some point?

H