| A LONG BLADE- SHORT POLL CAROLINA AXE |
Art Crowther and Rodney Peck |
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Harrisburg, North Carolina |
The grooved axe takes a prominent place among the tools used by the American Indian during the Archaic Period. The grooved axe is said to have been used in felling trees in conjunction with preparing living structures and providing fuel. While many prehistoric Indians made extensive use of chert, flint and other lithic materials to make points and tools, it was probably the grooved axe that was his first large tool other than a hammerstone. We don't know the exact date when the axe was first invented; however, it is suggested that a date between 6000 and 5000 BC is when it first occurred. It is the axe that was perhaps the best invention among the Archaic Indians with regard to building huts and clearing forests.
The full grooved axe shown in the accompanying photo was made from granite and has several distinctive characteristics. First, it is extremely rare that an axe of this size (10 inches long, 5 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches thick) is found in the mountains of North Carolina (Ashe County). While the poll or butt end of most axes of this size are usually large for driving stakes and other work, the poll end of this axe is extremely small and narrow and shows little wear. The extra long blade of this axe gives evidence that it was never resharpened by the Indian maker, and it shows no sign of wear at all. When one views this axe, it appears that it is very much out of proportion, with such a short poll and an extra long blade. It would make such a specimen very difficult to work with. Its center of gravity is so far off that one wonders what the Indian had in mind by putting the groove so close to the butt end of the axe. No doubt even a man of great skill would have had trouble using such a tool as this. Perhaps, the Indian used it as a wedge for splitting logs or in a soapstone quarry to split and remove unfinished stone bowls.
In studying axes of the American Indian, numerous specimens defy classification, or more importantly, present new evidence which should be classified. Even what appears to be new to one archaeologist may be quite familiar to another. This axe, which is definitely different in regards to the ratio of its short poll vs. long blade, is not yet classified as a type other than the full groove variety.
Hannant, Owen
1979, 'Neolithic Grooved Axes of the North American Indian.' The Best of 25 years of the Central States Archaeological Journal. 1954-1979.
Highsmith, Gale V.
1985, The Fluted Axe, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Hothem, Lar
1989, Indian Axes & Related Stone Artifacts. Paducah, Kentucky.
Hranicky, William, J.
1995, Prehistoric Axes, Celts, Bannerstones, and Other Large Tools in Virginia and Various States, Archaeological Society of Virginia, Courtland Virginia.
© 1990 C.S.A.S.I. Last modified:
December 8 2004