Note On The Stone Axe From A Middle Bronze Age Waterhole at Perry Oaks

NOTE ON THE STONE AXE FROM A MIDDLE BRONZE AGE WATERHOLE
AT PERRY OAKS
by Fiona Roe
Description
A stone axe ((135040), object No. 500) was found upright at the base of middle Bronze
Age waterhole 135071 (SG 135067). The axe is complete and in good condition, with
much of the original polished surface surviving. It is somewhat plump in appearance,
with a rounded butt and sides and a blade that is not particularly sharp. The axe measures
104 mm in length, 59 mm maximum breadth and 35 m maximum depth, with a weight of
316 grams. Thin sectioning was considered undesirable, as complete stone axes in good
condition are not particularly common finds. Macroscopic examination with a hand lens
showed that the axe probably belongs to petrological Group I, which is an uralitised
gabbro or greenstone likely to come from the Penzance area of Cornwall. The axes from
this particular petrological group are often relatively thick, and compare well
morphologically with the example from Perry Oaks (Keiller et al., 1941, 54, fig 1). The
likelihood is that they were made out of beach pebbles.
The axe may have been in a bark container (SG 135045) which was placed on the
primary silt in the bottom of the waterhole with other objects including a bone point and
wooden items, one of which was perhaps the haft for a bronze axe. This deposit is
attributed to the first episode of silting after the pit stopped being used as a waterhole (SG
135067. It is thought that the bark container and the objects found with it may represent a
‘placed’ deposit. Sherds of Deverel Rimbury pottery and radiocarbon dates from
associated woodwork provide the evidence for a middle Bronze Age date for the contents
of the waterhole.
Discussion
It would be no great surprise if this axe were to be confirmed as another find of the
Group I greenstone. This variety of stone axe material was the second most commonly
used overall in England and Wales (Cummins 1979, 7) and is also the dominant
petrological axe group in much of southern England (op cit., 8, fig 3). There are a number
of finds of these axes from middle reaches of the Thames (Clough and Cummins 1988,
266, map 2), so that this petrological group is the one most frequently found in London
and Middlesex (op cit., 34) and also in Surrey (Field & Woolley 1984, 97). Another axe
from the terminal 5 excavations probably belongs with these finds. This is a weathered
butt end, which was found in the fill of a Medieval enclosure ditch (PSH’02, (59905) SF
19516). Macroscopic examination suggests that it too was made from a Cornish
greenstone and it may well be another instance of a Group I axe.
Stone axes are traditionally considered to be Neolithic in date, and the possibility of one
in a ‘placed’ deposit of middle Bronze Age date is unusual though not entirely without
precedent. The initial use of Group I greenstone appears to have been quite early in the
Neolithic, but in the south-west only, with a few finds from sites such as at Carn Brea,
Cornwall (Smith 1979; 17, implement petrology numbers CO 110, 166, 358, 363),
Hambledon Hill, Dorset (Smith, in prep; DO 146, 147) and, most recently, the
causewayed enclosure at Raddon in Devon (Gent & Quinnell 1999, 53; DEV 177). Finds
of Group I or near Group I axes from later Neolithic contexts are dispersed over a wider
geographical area and include at least 8 found in Grooved Ware associations, often in
pits, as at Barrow Hills, Oxfordshire (Roe 1999, 228).
Stone axe fragments occur quite frequently in post-Neolithic contexts, as for example in
hillforts or on Roman sites, but usually in circumstances that suggest that they may be no
more than loose finds. There are however some other axes which by contrast appear to
have been deposited quite carefully. Complete stone axes found in particular post-
Neolithic contexts are especially suggestive of intentional deposition. One such axe,
identified petrologically as Group XX, came from the Bronze Age enclosure at Rams
Hill, Berkshire (Bradley & Ellison 1975, 86; BER 70), where its position in a foundation
trench for the rampart at the southern entrance may be of some significance (Bradley
2002, 54). A complete, small, greenstone axe was found at the base of an Iron Age pit at
Gussage All Saints (Clough & Cummins 1988, 161; DO 120). Another Iron Age
occurrence is of two Mesolithic axes found in a pit with Iron Age pottery (Bradley 2002,
54). There could be further unpublished examples of comparable finds. There are more
instances of stone axes which, although not complete, were found in specified Bronze
Age contexts. One such fragment came from one of the central postholes belonging to a
house at Thorney Down, Wiltshire, where it was associated with Deverel Rimbury
pottery. J F S Stone wrote at the time that ‘its occurrence here can hardly be fortuitous’
(1941, 132; WI 48) and referred to another axe fragment found in the ditch of the Bronze
Age enclosure at Boscombe Down East (Stone 1936, 479; WI 189). Both these fragments
belong within petrological Group I. A fragment from another Group I greenstone axe was
found in a pit with later Bronze Age pottery at Weston Wood, Albury, Surrey (Field and
Woolley 1984, 97; SY 64), adding to the suspicion that some of these axes may have
been deliberately placed. There are also precedents for finds of early Bronze Age bronze
axes in later Bronze Age hoards (Bradley 2002, 53). The question now arises as to
whether some of the stone and indeed flint axes found in the river Thames (Adkins &
Jackson 1978) may have been deposited during the Bronze Age.
Further comments can only be speculative. It may be noted that all but one of these axes
found in Bronze Age and Iron Age contexts are made from specific varieties of rock
belonging to known petrological groups. The waterhole at Perry Oaks is in an area of
Bronze Age fields where there had been previous specific Neolithic activity, being sited
in the centre of the smaller (C2) cursus and just to the north of the hengiform enclosure.
The axe could have been a casual find, picked up as a curiosity. However this particular
axe is in good condition, suggesting that it may have remained all along in personal
possession, perhaps even being cared for as an heirloom. Could it have been substituted
in a ‘placed’ deposit for a bronze axe which was not found, although there was a possible
wooden haft for one? There might well have been hesitation about consigning a valuable
metal axe to the bottom of a waterhole. Was this waterhole drying out as the result of a
change to a drier climate? If so, the deposit could perhaps have been made in the hope of
reversing the process and restoring a reliable water supply. The conclusion may be that
by the Bronze Age stone axes had not entirely lost their former value.
References
Adkins R & Jackson R 1978 Neolithic stone and flint axes from the River Thames, Brit
Mus Occ Paper 1
Bradley R & Ellison A 1975 Rams Hill: a Bronze Age Defended Enclosure and its
Landscape, B.A.R. 19, Oxford
Bradley R 2002 The Past in Prehistoric Societies, Routledge
Clough T H McK & Cummins W A (eds) 1979 Stone Axe Studies: Archaeological,
Petrological, Experimental and Ethnographic, CBA Research Report
No 23, London
Clough T H McK & Cummins W A (eds) 1988 Stone Axe Studies. Vol 2: The petrology
of prehistoric stone implements from the British Isles, CBA Research
Report No 67, London
Cummins W A 1979 ’Neolithic stone axes: distribution and trade in England and Wales’
in Clough & Cummins 1979, 5-12
Field D & Woolley A R 1984 ‘Neolithic and Bronze Age ground stone implements from
Surrey: morphology, petrology and distribution’, Surrey Arch Coll 75,
85-109
Gent T H & Quinnell H 1999 ‘Excavation of a Causewayed Enclosure and Hillfort on

Raddon Hill, Stockleigh Pomeroy’, Proc Devon Arch Soc 57, 1-75
Keiller A, Piggott S & Wallis FS 1941 ‘First Report of the Sub-Committee of the South
Western Group of Museums and Art Galleries on the Petrological
Identification of Stone Axes’, Proc Prehist Soc 7, 50-72
Roe F 1999 ‘Stone Axes’ in A Barclay & C Halpin, Excavations at Barrow Hills,
Radley, Oxfordshire. Vol I: The Neolithic and Bronze Age Monument
Complex, Thames Valley Landscapes Vol 11, Oxford Archaeological
Unit, 228-33
Smith I F 1979 ‘The chronology of British stone implements’ in Clough & Cummins
1979, 13-22
Smith I F, in prep ‘Stone axes’ in R Mercer & F Healy, Hambledon Hill, Dorset,
England. Excavation and Survey of a Neolithic Monument Complex
and its Surrounding Landscape, English Heritage Archaeological
report
Stone J F S 1936 ‘An Enclosure on Boscombe Down East’, Wilts Arch Mag 47, 1935-7,
466-489
Stone J F S 1941 ‘The Deverel Rimbury Settlement on Thorney Down, Winterbourne

Gunner, South Wiltshire’, Proc Prehist Soc 7, 114-33

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NOTE ON THE STONE AXE FROM A MIDDLE BRONZE AGE WATERHOLE

Bradley R 2002 The Past in Prehistoric Societies, Routledge

Gent T H & Quinnell H 1999 ‘Excavation of a Causewayed Enclosure and Hillfort on

Stone J F S 1941 ‘The Deverel Rimbury Settlement on Thorney Down, Winterbourne

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