Thursday 17 November 2022

Drilling Prehistoric Holes in Stone




What do they write about on antiquities collectors' forums? A lot of it seems to be of the "what is this?" type, with a strong preponderance towards "is this a real dugup antiquity or a fake?". An example from yesterday caught my eye: prometeus2@... · #97608
I got it 2 days ago .... Does the inside of the shaft hole looks what it´s supposed to be ?
Mmmm. Now it will be interesting to see how this is answered, if any collector on the forum ventures an opinion at all. So far, and give him credit where credit is due we have an opinion by Robert Kokotailo
Is your question what is it, or more is it authentic.

What is it, likely Danish ground stone hammer axe. . These can be late Neolithic to early Bronze Age. The curved shape suggests late in the period, likely very early Bronze Age at a time stone axes were influenced by the shapes of early bronze axes.

Is it authentic, difficult to tell from the images. These can be very well made and very well preserved if made for grave goods and interned (sic) when new.

I don’t see anything that suggest to me it is fake. There seems to be the right kind of grind marks on the surfaces. The hole looks like it was drilled with a bow drill as it should be. But having the right characteristics does not prove genuine. A provenance to a Danish or near by find site would go a long way.
Well, only if it were independently verifiable, anyone can make up a story. Leaving aside the identification, how can you say whether a hole is "right"? A hole is a hole, no? What does a collector see in a hole? 


2 comments:

Michael Aradas said...

The hole would be important if it were made with an electric or gas powered drill. That just determines if it's forgery or theft.

Paul Barford said...

so would you care to comment on the appearance of the hole?

 
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