Axe head

A Neolithic stone axe head ploughed up in a field at Bidston, Wirral, in 1916. It has been ground and highly polished to create a smooth surface, although pitted in places down one face. The axe has a teardrop, or pointed oval, shape and oval cross-section, with a wide cutting edge. It is made from a dark black-brown, volcanic basalt rock, which probably comes from a quarry at the foot of Tievebulliagh Mountain in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Axes from Tievebulliagh or Rathin Island off the Antrim coast, have been found across Britain.