Large bifacial blade
- Title:
- Large bifacial blade
- Collection:
- Selections from the Cornell Anthropology Collections
- Date:
- ca. 3950-1700 BCE
- Site:
- Stege, Møn, Storstrøm, Denmark
- Location:
- Stege, Møn, Storstrøm, Denmark
- Country:
- Denmark
- ID Number:
- Anthr1882_007_0178_01
- Old Catalog Number:
- 882.7.178
- File Name:
- Anthr1882_007_0178_01.jpg
- Culture:
- Danish (culture or style)
Neolithic - Style/Period:
- Neolithic
- Work Type:
- bifaces (stone tools)
knives: general cutting tools
halberds - Materials/Techniques:
- stone
flint (rock) - Subject:
- denmark
antiquities (object genre)
Neolithic
scandinavia
tools
prehistoric
knives
prehistoric
weapons
prehistoric - Measurement:
- 11.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 (centimeters)
- Description:
- Large, denticulate, bifacial flaked-stone blade. Grey-brown flint (slightly more granular in texture than much of the Danish material). Generally rectangular in form, with a lenticular cross-section and slight convex denticulate edges produced by well controlled pressure-flaking
unfinished at one end. 19th-century handwriting reads " Hans Olsen / Stege paa / Möen 76." on one side, and "(a2) b2" on the other, with the original price of "2.25" more faintly visible. Previously cataloged as a "spear point, also called saw", but it was never pointed at the end, and due to its thickness would be ineffective in the uses generally conceived as those of a saw. The unfinished end, presumably the butt, may have been hafted into a wood shaft, possibly perpendicular to the shaft as a halberd (if the break at the finished end is from use, it would suggest a blow at the end, but it appears more likely that that break is old but post-depositional). An unusual form, of indeterminate use. - Bibliography:
- Jørgen Jensen, The Prehistory of Denmark (Methuen, 1982)
Deborah Olausson & Helle Vandkilde, Form, Function & Context: Material Culture Studies in Scandinavian Archaeology (Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2000)
Christopher Tilley, An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia (Cambridge, 1996)
Anders Fischer & Kristian Kristiansen (eds), The Neolithisation of Denmark: 150 Years of Debrate (JR Collis, 2002)
Helle Vandkilde, From Stone to Bronze: The Metalwork of the Late Neolithic and Earliest Bronze Age in Denmark (Jutland Archaeological Society, 1996) - Archival Collection:
- Danish Neolithic stone tools
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Collection 'Selections from the Cornell Anthropology Collections' are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are Cornell University Library and the Department of Anthropology. Physical artifacts from the Cornell Anthropology Collections were photographed by Cornell University Library in 2012-13 for inclusion in this image collection. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.
Cornell would like to learn more about items in this collection and to hear from individuals or institutions that have any additional information. This collection is funded by an Arts and Sciences Grant to Frederic W. Gleach, Curator of the Anthropology Collections. Please contact him for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.