Prestige axes of rare alpine rock

A forgotten and overlooked find group from the end of the early Stone Age in Denmark

Abstract

Prestige axes of rare alpine rock

A forgotten and overlooked find group from the end of the early Stone Age in Denmark

In the second half of the 18th century, a heated debate on big jade axes took place in Europe. Hundreds of these had been found, especially in France and Germany, whereas no sources of jade in Europe were known. (1-3) The German mineralogist H. Fischer therefore postulated that the axes were once brought to Europe from Asia by immigrating people.(4-6) Other scholars, such as the French mineralogist A. Damour, and A. B. Meyer from Germany, maintained that jade sources probably existed in the Alps (8). This was in fact correct, but the alpine sources of jade were not identified until the 1970ies. (9- 10) Around 1880, several lists of jade axe finds in Europe were compiled (11) The lists mentioned two jade axes from the Danish island of Sealand. 12-13 Unfortunately, no precise information is available about the discovery of these finds, which were brought to Kassel in Germany already in the late 18th century. Whether the two axes were actually found in Denmark rather than in France has therefore been questioned. (14-17) However, a detailed biographical investigation of the people involved in the transport of the axes from Denmark to Hessen has shown no reason for doubting the available information of the find place. (18-21) The discovery of a third prestige axe of alpine stone (eclogite) in the storerooms of the National Museum in Copenhagen further strengthens this fact. This piece has very precise information on the find place: it was found in Haraldsted on the island of Sealand. This proves that axes of rare alpine rock did reach Sealand in prehistoric times. The find from Haraldsted was registered in the ethnographical department of the National Museum in 1849. This is probably the reason it was overlooked in former times. In 1945, it was moved to the prehistoric department of the museum, and a note possibly written by Mr C. J. Becker shows that this time the exotic nature and possible provenance of the piece were recognised.

The larger of the two jade axes from Sealand is 36,3 cm long, 8,6 cm wide, and just 1,6 cm thick (figs. 2 and 3). Mr H. Fischer has determined the stone material as jadeite proper. It is of light brown-yellow colour with intermixed green parts. The outline of the axe is triangular. It is slender with a rounded edge and a lens-shaped cross section. The pointed neck was broken off already in prehistoric times, and the axe is estimated to have measured around 40 cm originally. A 9-cm long cutting mark is seen on one side. The smaller axe consists of the same raw material (figs. 1 and 2). The form is rectangular with a four-sided, rectangular cross-section. The length is 23,7 cm, the width 7,1 cm, and the thickness 2,7 cm. The neck of this axe is also broken off. As on the larger axe, traces of stone cutting are visible on one side. The axe from Haraldsted is probably made of eclogite (figs. 4 and 5). 28 The colour is dark and middle green intermixed with black. The length is 20,2 cm, the width is 5,8 cm, and the thickness 4,0 cm. The axe has a pointed neck and a thick, round-oval cross-section. All three finds are of the characteristic types defined by P Pétrequin et al. (29) The piece from Haraldsted can be identified as an axe of the Bégude type (short variant) (fig. 6) (30). The main distribution area of this type is Southern and South Western France. (31) The raw material used for axes of this type is mainly found in the French Alps east of the river Durance, near the Italian Monte Viso, and in Liguria. (34) Begude axes are dated to c. 4500 BC. (36-37) The big jadeite axe from Sealand is a characteristic specimen of the "northern type" mentioned in Petréquin et al. The main distribution area of this type is the northern half of France, the British Isles and the Middle and Lower Rhine Region. The best parallel to the axe from Sealand comes from a hoard found at Bennwihr in Alsace (fig. 7). (43) It must be noted that the Danish specimen is one of the largest jade axes known of the "northern type." The raw material probably originates from the Lombard Alps in Northern Italy. (47) Axes of this type are dated to the period between 4300 and 3900 BC. (48) The smaller of the two Sealandic axes can be attributed to the Puy-Notre-Dame type (long variant) (fig. 8) (52-54), which has its main distribution area in the valley of the River Loire in France. (54) The origin of the raw material used and the dating correspond with those of the large Sealandic jadeite axe. Both axes probably once constituted a hoard. The dating of the three finds coincides with the late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture in Southern Scandinavia. However, it is possible that the two jadeite pieces were not deposited until the early Neolithic Period.

The three West European axes could have reached Sealand in two ways. Either as an exchange from France (most probably Brittany) via the Channel Coast and the North Sea (fig. 9) -or as an exchange from the Mittelelb-Saale Region in Central Europe along the River Elbe.The fact that they were found in the eastern part of Southern Scandinavia speaks in favour of the last possibility. A more westerly distribution would be expected if the axes were imported directly from. The West. Furthermore, the distribution of certain types of shoe-last axes (fig. 10) and copper axes (fig. 12) demonstrates the existence of an exchange network between Sealand/ Scania and the Mittelelb-Saale regions in the late early Stone Age and the early part of the late part of the Stone Age. (61-62) The axes therefore most probably came as an exchange from the Mittelelb-Saale region. Prestige axes of alpine rock are concentrated to certain areas in Europe. They do not follow a down-the-line scheme, as is the case for the shoe-last axes mentioned. (63) The local concentrations have been interpreted as evidence for direct exchange between elite groups (fig. 11). (66) However, this theory does not seem applicable here, although the copper axes referred to above also show a regionally accumulated distribution (fig. 12). This is because another group of copper axes was exchanged between the Carpathian Basin and Southern Scandinavia at the time in question in a down-the-line manner along an exchange route passing through the Mittelelb-Saale region . (65) A model proposing direct exchange of high prestige goods (jade, copper) and down-the-line exchange of less prestigious items (shoe-last axes) is therefore not applicable. A precondition for a direct exchange would be the existence of an elite in Southern Scandinavia at the end of the early Stone Age standing in direct contact with social elite groups in other parts of Europe. Although the presence of many prestigious objects in Southern Scandinavia hints at a non-egalitarian society (see below), the existence of the social organisation required for a direct elite exchange cannot be concluded. Furthermore, the existence of local concentrations can be explained differently using ethnological analogies. (67)

clear, that the objects discussed here were no common working axes but prestige axes with a predominantly social function. Jade pieces of the size required for the production of a prestige axe could only be obtained from quarries in the inner Alps. (69-70) Comparison between the results of ethnographic research concerning quarries worked for the production of prestige axes in New Guinea and Neolithic quarries from France shows how the production of jade axes may have been organised. (74) Conclusions about the social function of the axes can be made in the same way. Although drawing any certain conclusions about the precise use of these axes in Neolithic Europe is not possible, it is nevertheless possible to state that we are dealing with high-level prestige items. After the earliest copper axes (76), jade axes are the second category of high prestige objects of Neolithic Europe that were imported into the late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture in the Western Baltic. Together with more than two hundred other exchange items (77), they draw a picture of the social structure in the late Ertebølle Period. Prestige seems to have been very important in society at that time. We may thus assume a considerable degree of social inequality in the late Ertebølle Culture. In Europe, jade axes appear in several regional concentrations, which are interpreted as centres with a culture showing a high degree of vertical social differentiation. (80-81) Although only three finds of the category in question are known from Sealand, the same phenomenon of local accumulation is probably found here. The Danish find group is geographically isolated from the other European finds of jade axes. This may confirm the above conclusion that social inequalities existed in the late Ertebølle culture.

With the earliest copper axes, the jade finds mark the beginnings of a phenomenon characteristic of most following prehistoric periods in Southern Scandinavia: almost paradoxical richness. It is interesting that the beginnings of this phenomenon are notable already in the early Stone Age. Here, the exchanged goods were not agricultural products -and perhaps not in the following period either.

The three jade axes are the only exotic items known from the late part of the early Stone Age in the Western Baltic that originate in Western Europe. More than two hundred other exotic objects known all derive from the South and Southeast. If the axes were imported via the Mittelelb-Saale region in Central Europe as postulated above, this strengthens the theory that western influences in Southern Scandinavia in the late early part of the Stone Age are only seen in artefacts produced locally, whereas imported items come from regions to the South or Southeast.

The importance of the prestigious jade axes in the Neolithic communities of Western Europe is also mirrored in the high number of locally made copies in different materials. One good example of such copies is the flint axes of the Glis type (fig. 13) known from Southwest Germany, Eastern France, and Switzerland (90). Another example is the slate axes from Iberia. (91 -92) In Bohemia and the German Mittelelb-Saale Region, locally produced copper axes resembling triangular jade axes can be dated to c. 4000 BC. (94-95) Two of these copper axes were imported to South Scandinavia (fig. 14). (96-98) Another copy known is a 18,7-cm long axe made of contact-metamorphous sedimentary rock (figs. 15 and 16). (101) The find was made in Søborg Mose on the island of Sealand. This axe is typologically identical to triangular jade axes of the Glastonbury type (fig. 17). (99) It is the only known example of this stone material, and it was probably imported. The find thus underlines the concentration of axes of the discussed type on the island of Sealand.

As the jade axes had a strong influence on the local axe production in many parts of Europe, it is worth considering whether the same was true for Southern Scandinavia. In the late Ertebølle Culture, core axes with so called specialised edge treatment appeared. This treatment probably had no practical function at all, and the core axes in question appear much more regular in shape than older core axe types. Thus, they may reflect imitation efforts. (105-107) The picture gets even clearer when considering the earliest flint axes of the Neolithic. The two-sided flint axes of type one, with pointed ends, are typologically almost identical to the big triangular jade axes, and especially to slender ones like the one from Sealand. (108-111) These, too, are concentrated on Sealand, and in Scania. (114) Furthermore, unsharpened items of that type (fig. 18) resemble flint axes of the Glis-Weisweil type so much that we are probably dealing with the same phenomenon, the imitation of jade axes in local raw materials. (112-113)

Lutz Klassen