2024’s top finds – the stone axe that once rivalled our finest

Wednesday, December 18, 2024 (9:46 AM)

Polished stone axe from Structure Fourteen. — The polished stone axe from Structure Fourteen. (📷 ORCA)

The stunning polished stone axehead found in Structure Fourteen in 2014. (ORCA) — The stunning polished stone axehead found in Structure Fourteen in 2014. (📷 ORCA)

Back in 2012, we unearthed our most exquisite example of a polished stone axe in Structure Fourteen.

Fashioned from Lewissian gneiss, which outcrops in western Scotland and the Western Isles, the appearance of the carefully ground rock saw the artefact nicknamed the “cloud axe”.

It had been deliberately buried in Structure Fourteen’s floor at the end of the building’s life, along with a pillow stone (that had been placed on a finely incised slab) and a complete Grooved Ware pot, before the structure was filled with demolition debris.

Fast forward to 2024, and Structure Twelve, where Sara was excavating in the north-western recess.

In a pocket between Twelve and its underlying predecessor, Structure Twenty-Eight, she found the shattered remains of a stone axe. Little more that a series of muddy, stone flakes, it was clear from the larger fragments that this polished stone tool once rivalled the “cloud axe”.

The poorly preserve axe fragments from Structure Twelve/Twenty-Eight. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

The largest fragment of the polished stone axe. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

The cleaned fragments in the finds hut. (📷 Anne Mitchell)

Described by finds supervisor Anne as one of the Ness’ greatest “might-have-beens”, its position between two buildings suggests it too had perhaps been a deliberate deposit to mark the end of Structure Twenty-Eight.

And more evidence of long-distance connections between Neolithic Orkney and the wider world.

3d model of the 2021 “cloud axe” from Structure Fourteen (📷Hugo Anderson-Whymark)