Stone axe, butt end

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Butt end of a polished stone axe, shale . Bronze Age 3,780 - 3,800 years ago.

Field collection: Bractullo Farm, Letham, Angus. A short cist inhumation discovered during ploughing operations in December 1966.

Donated by Mrs MM Watt
Museum number: 1969-244-2

Dated from radio carbon tests performed on skeleton. Part of a grave group.Tthe grave of a woman over thirty five years old of a robust build. She was about 163cm tall. Polished stone axes were highly prized in the Neolithic - many years before this woman died. This axe may have been an heirloom in the dead woman's family. Sometimes tools seem to have been deliberately broken before being placed in burials.