This volume builds upon the model of the first Stone Axe Studies volume published in 1979. It explores how scholars from various parts of the world currently approach these distinctive items. Some papers are united by specific material, such as those working on Jadeite axe blades in western and Central Europe. For others, the link is analytical (e.g., the development of new geochemical techniques), contextual (e.g., work on techniques of hafting or on patterns of deposition) or conceptual (e.g., the uses made of ethno-historic and related models). Taken together, they document the state of the art in stone axe research in Britain and abroad, at the same time providing a much needed basis for comparative study and for debate regarding analytical and interpretative issues.

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The experienced axe. Chronology, condition and context of TRB-axes in western Norway
• Chapter 2: The Nøstvet Axe
• Interlude 1
  • Chapter 3: The evolution of Neolithic and Chalcolithic woodworking tools and the intensification of human production: axes, adzes and chisels from the Southern Levant
  • Chapter 4: Eclogite or jadeitite: The two colours involved in the transfer of alpine axeheads in western Europe
• Interlude 2
  • Chapter 5: Power tools: Symbolic considerations of stone axe production and exchange in 19th century south-eastern Australia
  • Chapter 6: Social and economic organisation of stone axe production and distribution in the western Mediterranean
• Interlude 3
  • Chapter 7: The felsite quarries of North Roe, Shetland – An overview
  • Chapter 8: Misty mountain hop: Prehistoric stone working in south-west Wales
• Interlude 4
  • Chapter 9: Production and diffusion of axes in the Seine valley
  • Chapter 10: A time and place for the Belmont Hoard
• Interlude 5
  • Chapter 11: The prehistoric axe factory at Sanganakallu-Kupgal (Bellary District), southern India
  • Chapter 12: The ritual use of axes
• Interlude 6
  • Chapter 13: Primary and secondary raw material preferences in the production of Neolithic polished stone tools in northwest Turkey
  • Chapter 14: Stone-working traditions in the prehistoric Aegean: The production and consumption of edge tools at Late Neolithic Makriyalos
• Interlude 7
  • Chapter 15: The Mynydd Rhiw quarry site: Recent work and its implications
  • Chapter 16: Graig Lwyd (Group VII) assemblages from Parc Bryn Cegin, Llandygai, Gwynedd, Wales – analysis and interpretation
• Interlude 8
  • Chapter 17: Neolithic polished stone axes and hafting systems: Technical use and social function at the Neolithic lakeside settlements of Chalain and Clairvaux
  • Chapter 18: A potential axe factory near Hyssington, Powys: Survey and excavation 2007–08
  • Chapter 19: Does size matter? Stone axes from Orkney: their style and deposition
• Interlude 9
  • Chapter 20: Neolithic ground axe-heads and monuments in Wessex
  • Chapter 21: The twentieth-century polished stone axeheads of New Guinea: why study them?
• Interlude 10
  • Chapter 22: Neolithic near-identical twins: The ambivalent relationship between ‘factory’ rock and polished stone implements
  • Chapter 23: Flint axes, ground stone axes and “battle axes” of the Copper Age in the Eastern Balkans (Romania, Bulgaria)
• Interlude 11
  • Chapter 24: Stone axes in the Bohemian Eneolithic: Changing forms, context and social significance
  • Chapter 25: Changing contexts, changing meanings: Flint axes in Middle and Late Neolithic communities in the northern Netherlands
• Interlude 12
  • Chapter 26: Old friends, new friends, a long-lost friend and false friends: Tales from Projet JADE
  • Chapter 27: The Irish Stone Axe Project: Reviewing progress, future prospects
• Interlude 13