What is this please? Has it been worked?

[PeteH]

I saw this lying on the surface of a field in Monkton Deverill yesterday whilst out metal detecting. It looks like it may have been worked, but the field is littered with stones and I'm guessing that although the odds are slim, the occasional stone must get shaped by the plough and frost etc over the millennia.
I'd love to think it has been shaped by human hands....

[gregszybala]

Welcome to the site. That is definitely worked by human hands, congrats!

[Hal Gorges]

Welcome from Florida...I’m not an expert on English flaked tools ( which it is, and a nice one at that ) but I know from finding North American ones, that’s what you have...I just don’t know if it’s an Axe, Celt, Hoe or ( Adz which I think it is ) )...it’s definitely a finished piece as evidenced by the re sharpening on the business end, ... Painshill will know what kind of beautiful flint it’s made from, and more details about the piece, and hopefully reply,

[tomclark]

that's a great artifact! was it found in a plowed field? We don't have those kind of rusty stains on things in FL but I see it on many pieces that have been scraped by the plow over the years.

[Ron Kelley]

Very nice ancient artifact and a beautiful lithic material.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Go back with detector , leave it at field edge and look for more shaped stones !

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Never sure of how that all worked out, so I suppose the same with all artifacts, stone or AU ? Interesting !

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Anyway my ancestry comes from UK. Burrow name derived from cave dwellers, how appropriate !

[painshill]

'Treasure' has a very specific definition which does not include lithic artefacts. The exception is for lithic artefacts found together with (or which had previously been together with) other metal items which are captured by the definition of 'treasure'. Metal items do not have to be precious metal to be classed as 'treasure'. The definition also includes 'two or more prehistoric base metal objects in association with one another'.

[SurfaceHunter]

Trophy piece not sure what it is exactly maybe a knife. That's a big boy.

[redrocks]

Nice!!!

[Artifascination]

Awesome find!

[Tam]

Beautiful artifact Painshill will know .

[painshill]

Welcome to arrowheads.com Pete.

That's a good find and most certainly has been shaped by human hands. It's an axe head (would have been hafted) from the Neolithic or early Bronze Age, circa 3500-1200 BC.

The white exterior is chemical patination from the effects of groundwater absorption at a microscopic level during its burial. That threadlike brown staining is typically from iron carbonate formation in fissures arising in the patina. It’s not necessarily an indication of antiquity… just an indication of which minerals were present in the groundwater.

This side of the pond we don’t really have as many distinct types of raw materials as they have in the States (and certainly we aren’t as obsessive as they are about giving them regional names). Your axe is made from flint of course; there are numerous flint mines and exposures across the chalk deposits of the North Wessex Downs, including the parts of them in Wiltshire, such as the Marlborough Downs. Plus scattered nodules of flint across the whole county. It will likely be local flint.

[Mattern]

Hi Petev H, welcome to the sit. That's a Jolly good find. Kidding, we like to have fun here too. I should say Magnificent. Kim

[Jethro355]

Man, I don’t know what it is, but I really like it. It’s a beautiful tool, and it’s old.

i believe that’s what’s known as a “real Bobby dazzler”...

go back. Find more!👍👍

[antmike915]

Welcome from Georgia, nice find 👌

[DoobieWah]

I believe the proper term, ( from binge watching Time Team) is " brilliant".

Welcome from Texas.