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axehead 4

axe 1    axe 2   axe 3    axe 5

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Axehead 4 has a typical axehead shape.  It is 150mm long, 135mm at its widest point and 70mm at the opposite end.  There are three visible, grey, horizontal bedding marks on the axe’s sharp edge.  This indicates the rock was once sedimentary and has undergone metamorphism, to produce a fine grey rock called Greywacke.
Greywacke is strong in all directions and is easier to produce an edge on because it is softer than quartzite and rhyolite.  We think this is a fine example of a much valued Kalkadoon axehead from around the Mt Isa area.  If so then it has arrived over a 1000km long trade route to Herberton.
Axehead 4 is a dark grey colour although one side of the axehead is covered with a black foreign substance.  One the other side there is a blotch of the same substance in the center of the stone.  We believe this is spinifex resin from a previous handle .
The edge on this axe is perfectly symmetrical adding to its value. It could be used as a status symbol much like the  sports car of today.
The axehead would have traveled all this way and could have taken some years to travel this far being traded several time in the process.  Our class was very interested by this fact, so we retraced the old trade routes using terrain analysis (see our map).