Story of Axehead 2
axe 1
axe 3
axe 4
Axehead number two is 155mm long, 70mm wide at the thinner end and 120mm
wide at the head and is the hardest and heaviest of all the axeheads. There are three parallel bedding margins suggesting that it was once a sedimentary rock that was metamorphosed possibly by the Elizabeth Creek Granites in the local Hodgkinson Basin.
The rock fabric in both axeheads one and two consists of a large amount of quartzite with biotite. The thermally metamorphosed quartzite probably originated from mudstone.
The two active edges are both used, but one has more scratches than the other suggesting that it was used to chop objects from the end rather than in the middle. It had strange triangular incisions on one side only, which may be local tribal identification markings.
The contact angle is 38.5° and was not comfortable to hold in the hand so we suspect it had a handle. Our suspicions were confirmed when Nungbana chose it and a handle was attached to it.
