SOUTH WEST IMPLEMENT PETROLOGY GROUP
GROUP CASE STUDY: GROUP 1 AXES
The samples taken are examined under a microscope and sorted into groups according to mineralogical composition and structure. These groups are then matched to specific sources. Some matches are relatively straight forward - Group VI samples match the debris from axe-making found on the slopes of Great Langdale in Cumbria. Some have not been matched to a single manufacturing site. Group I is clearly derived from the greenstone of Cornwall, now exposed on the northern shore of West Penwith and in Mounts Bay. Despite extensive fieldwork by Mik Markham, a precise match has yet to be found. Does this mean that the source has been drowned by the substantial rise in sea level since the Neolithic Period? Or were the axe-makers, a possibilty that Dave Weddle has demonstrated, letting nature do the hard work of quarrying and just refashioning beach pebbles.
Above: Axe identified to Group I Photograph by courtesy of David Dawson and the Royal Institution of Cornwall. Sample taken by the older more obtrusive method of removing a slice from the edge.
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