Summary

Stone battle axe from the cemetery at Barns Farm, Dalgety Bay, Fife

Accession Number

X.EQ 916

Other references

None

Original description

[MOS List, II.5.1, Death: object list by case, JAS 3.2.98. Case no.: V08 - Identity: part of community]. [One of] Grave goods from cemetery at Barns Farm: - from Grave 1: - battle axe. Trevor Cowie notes, 20 February 2014: Description after Watkins 1982 incoporating info from FES Roe : battle-axe (FRN 61; NMAS EQ 916; fig 19.61; pi 10); slightly wedge-shaped specimen, with a convex outline, as seen in profile. It is flat on the top and bottom surfaces, and can be assigned to the Woodhenge group, with a butt approximating to the A butt shape (Roe 1966: 204-5). This battle-axe measures 97 mm in length, 64 mm in maximum breadth, and 37-5 mm in depth at the shafthole. This is a curved hourglass shape, measuring 22 mm in minimum diameter. The greatest depth of the axe is near to the butt end of the implement, where the depth is 40 mm. The surface of the battle-axe has been polished, but there is damage both at the blade and the butt ends, though especially at the butt, in the form of pitting. Scratches on the battle-axe are of recent origin. The blade is considerably blunted. When the axe was washed it was found to be blackened on either side. Petrological thin section of the axe (by Malcolm Fenton): Implement Petrology number FIF 9: chlorite amphibolite, probably made from a locally found glacial erratic, since the geological sources of the rock are confined to the area north of the Highland Boundary Fault (after Fenton). For further discussion see Watkins 1982

Associated person/people (e.g. excavator/former collection)

None

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

Not recorded

Method (e.g. excavation)

Not recorded

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Barns Farm, Dalgety Bay, Fife, Scotland, Northern Europe

Acquisition

Acquisition date

Not recorded

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Not recorded

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Not recorded

Image

None