FIELD WALKING
DESCRIPTION OF FINDS
STONE AXES HEADS
The collection includes four probable polished stone axe fragments, from fields 2388, 2383, 9278 and 9676. The source for these is outside the immediate locality, implying trade or exchange most probably of the finished axes. They indicate activity in the Neolithic. Macroscopic examination suggests that the pieces from field 2383 and 9676 (25893) are greenstone fragments from Langdale in the Lake District, but the piece from field 9278 is made from what appears to be a sedimentary rock, and a source closer to Bingham is possible.
A thin section was made of the axe head found in field 2388 (00001). It is a coarse-grained volcaniclastic sandstone containing rounded to sub-angular fragments of fluxion textured dacite and andesite, some sub-angular quartz grains, iron oxide and altered ferromagnesian minerals. The matrix between the clasts is indeterminate. Both andesite and dacite are found in Charnwood Forest, but there is no cleavage in the rock, which rules out an origin there. The other area in southern Britain where they are found is the Lake District. These lava types are the dominant lithologies in the central fells and a cleavage here is only locally developed. A source somewhere in the central Lake District is, therefore, possible.
Axe heads from the Lake District are common in Lincolnshire and counties in the northern East Midlands. A map showing this distribution in the Collection in Lincoln seems to imply that there was a distribution centre for them based on the Humber.