- Langdale axe industry
The Langdale axe industry is the name given by archaeologists to the centre of a specialised
stone tool manufacturing atGreat Langdale inEngland 'sLake District during theNeolithic .The area has outcrops of fine-grained greenstone suitable for making polished axes which were highly prized across the
British Isles .Fact|date=May 2008 The rock is an epidotised greenstone quarried or perhaps just collected from thescree slope s in the Langdale Valley onHarrison Stickle andPike of Stickle .Petrographic analysis
Archaeologist s are able to identify the unique nature of the Langdale stone by taking sections and examining them usingmicroscopy . The minerals in the rock have a characteristic pattern, using a method known aspetrography . They have been able to reconstruct the production methods and trade patterns employed by the axe makers. The Langdale industry produced roughly hewn (or so-called "rough-outs") axes and simple blocks as well as the highly polished final product and all were traded on throughout Britain and Ireland.Polishing the rough surfaces will have improved themechanical strength of the axe as well as loweringfriction when used against wood.Some axes appear worn whilst others appear unused implying that they were regarded as sacred objects, as well as being used as practical tools. The shape of the polished axes suggests that they were bound in wooden staves and used for forest clearance. It has been suggested that the area itself may have had some
mystical importance to its inhabitants and that axes from here were deemed significant across theBritish Isles Fact|date=May 2008, although the hardness of the rock and its resistance to breaking made it a viable alternative to the ubiquitousflint axe s widely used at the same period.The manufacturers of the axes also built some of the first
Neolithic stone circle s such as that at Castlerigg.Context
The Langdale industry was just one of many which extracted hard stone for manufacture into polished axes. The
Neolithic period was a time of settlement on the land, and the development of farming on a very large scale. Clearance of the forest cover was necessary in order to plant crops and rear animals, so axes were a staple tool, not just for clearance but also for wood working timber for houses, boats and other structures.Flint was probably the most widely used, simply because it was available from numerous flint mines in thedownland s, such asGrimes Graves .Cissbury andSpiennes . Offcuts from roughing-out could also be used as small knives, arrowheads and other small sharp tools. But other stones were used, such as those fromPenmaenmawr inNorth Wales , and similar working areas to Langdale have been found there. Many other locations for production of axes have been found across the country includingTievebulliagh in countyAntrim , sites inCornwall ,Scotland and elsewhere.The variety of rocks used in polished tools and other artefacts is evident in museum collections, not all of the sources of the rocks having been positively identified. Taking sections is necessarily destructive of part of the artefact, and thus discouraged by many museums.
References
*Clare Fell, "The Great Langdale stone-axe factory", Trans Cumberland and Westmorland Antiq and Arch Soc, 50, 1-13 (1950).
ee also
*
Cissbury
*Grimes Graves
*Great Orme
*Flint
*Flint tool
*Penmaenmawr
*Spiennes
*Stone tool
*Tievebulliagh External links
* [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6924 Megalithic portal article on Langdale axe factory]
* [http://www.philipcoppens.com/lakeland.html Article on Castlerigg and the Axe industry of Langdale]
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