Graig Lwyd: A Neolithic Axe Landscape in North Wales

In the hills of north Wales there is a great deal of archaeology. From standing stones, circles, cists and cairns, there is plenty to see today. However there is a type of stone used in the Neolithic that was clearly very important for its ability to be flaked. Its not flint, instead its a volcanic rock that could be flaked in the same way and ground into axe heads. These axe heads have been found hundreds of miles away from north Wales which demonstrates their high value.
Dr. James Dilley explores the axe landscape which is close to his heart, having visited and explored it for many years. He has also made many replica axes using this special stone and always says out of all the materials he has tried that it is the best for axes.
Filmed Edited & Produced by Emma Jones of ELWJ Media - www.elwjmedia.co.uk
Image Copyright:
-Ehenside Tarn Polished Stone Axehead: ©The Trustees of the British Museum
-Neolithic axe, with Antrim porcellanite axehead, from Shulishader, Lewis: ©NMS
-The Shulishader axe. Drawing by Helen Jackson for NMS
Jadeitite Axehead: ©The Trustees of the British Museum
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[@MLaserHistory]

I came for the information stayed for the scenery :)

[@ReasonAboveEverything]

I dare to say that a lot of us stone age enthusiasts are wondering how stone axes compare in performance to steel or bronze axes. I have tested a granite stone axes and compared them to modern axes but not everyone has the possibility to go out into the woods and chop stuff. So far I have been able to find only 2 videos that somewhat show the difference. I am sure people would appreciate a clip with your high quality video production showing close up how different these tools actutually perform and how differently they function. - Marcus

[@ancientcraftUK]

We’ll add it to the list!

[@ReasonAboveEverything]

@@ancientcraftUK Much appreciated!

[@jamesbrogdon5455]

You got the right idea! I've also been experimenting with stone tools and mainly all the ancient technologies of rock cutting. Stone masonry throughout the world is the oldest things humans ever done, so it would be cool to see all their different stuff too.

[@jcharlesbayliss]

Neolithic stone axes are just so beautiful. What a lucky man you are to have a passion for such things.

[@HistoryTime]

Fascinating stuff. Particularly enjoyed the drone shots. Nothing like exploring megalithic sites from the sky!

[@cellerfeller1474]

In North America fire was used in conjuction with carving with stone age tools. Fire could be made around the base of a tree - the softened, charred wood could be more easily chopped with a stone axe. The same technique could be used to make a bowl. Simple stick tongs would be used to pluck coals out of the fire. These would be placed on top of the bowl blank. The char would be hollowed out with a bone or stone tool. One of the oldest Indian crooked knives found was 8000 years old. It was a beaver's tooth set in a root handle. Likely a curved piece of flint could have been used as well. Fire was also used in Nova Scotia 8-10000 years ago to modify chalcedony stone to make knapping easier and to change the color of the material. Thank you for making these amazing videos!

[@johnfisk811]

It is said that fire was used in conjunction with ring barking by neoloithic people’s. The trees would be ring barked, which demonstrated the patch of land was for the use by the makers. The tree would be left to die off whilst the ring barkers went on their usual round of seasonal sites. After a year or two they would return and the now dead wood would be dry so a fire around the base would char more easily that a freshly ringed tree and the char scraped off until the tree fell, or at least was weakened and thinned enough for stone axes to finish the job off. Someone suggested that the pile of fallen trunks first suggested the construction of wooden huts akin to log cabins as they would have the materials to hand. Which needed clearing anyway, and it would be durable enough to provide seasonal shelter for a few years. Others have pointed out that burning the fallen timber would fertilise the land with the ash though. I wonder if research on ancient ly cleared ground would show a trace ash layer?

[@crow1066]

I wonder when the last time someone knapped that Diorite in anger, at that location? The Victorians tried their best to pave the world with the same stone but whilst setts could be easily made, it was found that when laid on streets in Liverpool, the horses shoes slipped on it moreso than Granite ones in the wet. So only lintels and the like were made. Now its the fill of Tarmac and ballast.

[@ancientcraftUK]

Who knows! Could be right there. I didn’t know about the stone being too slippery

[@NORTH02]

Great video

[@enchanted_golden_apple]

OH MY GOODNESS

[@6bonjour]

Excellent video. Everything you presented makes good sense. Cheers

[@wildshadowmatic1571]

I can never get bored of these videos 😁 thank you😊

[@ancientcraftUK]

We're glad! Thanks for watching 😁

[@polderfischer8565]

Thank you Sir for uploading this nice contend, and feel free to double the time ;-)

[@ancientcraftUK]

🤣 I'll tell that to the camera woman - although after the three days it took to film and edit this she might not appreciate it 😉. We have some more content over on our Patreon account but it takes a great deal of time investment to produce the videos we do, so we're grateful for any support we can get so we can keep doing what we do! Glad you enjoyed the video ☺️

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

Great video James! Congrats to Emma too. Also speaks volumes to the association between trade and the presence of stone circles. M&R

[@scott9665]

A massively underrated channel that deserves more subscribers and publicity, fascinating and well presented. should be on the history channels.

[@tpxchallenger]

Very informative. I had never wondered why these stone axes were polished, other than it made the blades look better easier to work with.

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

I've seen a polished jade axe in a museum somewhere. Can't remember where it was. Bum! They're still stunningly beautiful. We do like showing off. I've also seen a small flint tool, that was made to show off a beautiful bivalve mollusc shell fossil.

[@amberyooper]

Very interesting!

[@longbow4856]

Thank you .🙂

[@stumccabe]

Thank you. Fascinating as usual.

[@jaspermolenaar1218]

Love the drone shots!

[@michaeloverton5533]

Beautiful video, I loved the combination of seeing where the stone comes from, and you working it to make an axe. Thank you for making these!

[@ancientcraftUK]

You're welcome! It is a particularly beautiful area so it made a good setting for the knapping ☺️

[@TheMark2303]

As a local this is extremely interesting to see, and your pronunciation of the locations was spot on 😁 Great video 👍

[@ancientcraftUK]

Thank you! That means a great deal coming from a local. Your home region has such special archaeology

[@LuxisAlukard]

Nice one!

[@ReasonAboveEverything]

This was interesting. Never knew there was a practical purpose for grinding the axe head smooth. I was under the impression that the reason was simply human desire to beautify things and figured it was something people did when there was nothing else to do.

[@CarsonRH]

There are always other things to do.

[@dooleyfussle8634]

This polishing may have been a job children or elders did, rather than pulling more skilled and capable members of the group from their normal tasks.

[@meatballs9453]

There is also an axe factory located on rathlin island in Northern Ireland.

[@ancientcraftUK]

We’ve just visited it! Amazing place

[@jl6569]

Would love to see you make different types of prehistoric axes or spears and see what were the advantages and disadvantages of each. Similar to your work on the antler spears vs. typical spears.

[@philwaters9751]

Nice work on the 'stress raisers V polished surface' question. Presumably it works both ways, that is, forces traveling within the axe head don't get focused into the underside of a peak, or the underside of a dimple. And...The peaks on the outside don't stress-raise the forces being exerted by the handle socket, or the target tree as it grips onto the two chopping faces of the blade. Have I got that right?

[@fraserbuilds]

i love these videos! its so interesting to see how stone tools evolved. the grinding is really fascinating, would they have continuously sharpened their tools across their lifespan the same way we do? would smoothing a knife the same way give similar benefits or does the bkade have to be of a certain size for it to work?

[@davebrunner1272]

When hafted in wood the smoother blade would move back better to keep it"s self tight than a flaked blade and there would be less abrasion on the handle. Wood expands and contracts so the place where the tool sits would change with humidity . Even today we use tools that have handles that are held in place by wedge action, picks adzes .mattoks Etc. Now we have steel tools so the wedge action is on the inside and less prone to breaking. I have admiration for the people of old .If they had our tools they would never look back.

[@DancingEagle]

Also as it is hafted a flaked axe would chew up its handle making you have to replace the handle more often. A polished back end would evenly apply the force over the wood slot.

[@dscrive]

regarding polishing, I find it really interesting that other materials experience a similar-ish issues as the stone tools, I learned in tech school that sharp corners act as a stress magnifier, which can cause a material to fail at much lower perceived forces. That's why there are lots of rounded inside corners on stuff. . .although they also tend to be rounded because that's the shape of the tool forming them haha.

[@ancientcraftUK]

It does make sense though! I really like coming across these engineering points that were first explored in prehistory

[@Just_Sara]

I think Real Engineering did a video on stress concentrations - something about why airplane windows are round instead of square. It really showed the numbers behind what many humans already kind of know intuitively. Round = better stress distribution, and not-round things tend to break.

[@lauriedurk]

Does the groove in a polishing stone form naturally through use, or is it created beforehand for the purpose of polishing?

[@metaldiver]

Interestin video👍 What about you think, is the first bronze flat axes put the shaft as same ways, like these neolithic stone axes? Or is style same as iceman Ötzi:s axe? Split wood and tie up the leather stripe. I found little bronze flat axe, (first flat axe in Finland) that is now in museum. And i wan't make replika, like it was when that axe was use.

[@LSOP-]

Local Welsh man "David Jones". Did he want to remain anonymous? That's pretty much just... John Smith! 🤣

[@noahegler9131]

There's a lot of people with generic names. That's what makes them generic.

[@ianbruce6515]

I've been wondering if ground axes are sometimes made simply because the local stone was not knapable, or not easily knapable? I know ground axes can be made from fine grained granite that will not knap to a good edge. Are some some stones that don't knap well, very tough, and stand up to hard use better than ground flint? I get the idea that it can take well over 40 hrs to grind an axe from a hard stone--but some people can get an axe out of a river cobble in one day. I imagine an easy to peck and grind stone would be much less durable?

[@ancientcraftUK]

Plenty of axe types out there that are not knappable stone, Cornish greenstone as one examples had to be pecked. However where knappable stone didn’t exist and the only available material was easy to peck but not durable you tend to get a mix of local material and exotic axes that were brought in

[@ianbruce6515]

@@ancientcraftUK Thanks for the reply!

[@kerriefearby9542]

A young Phil Harding 😂😊😅

[@Forsthman64]

Comment for the algo

[@kurtisengle6256]

I'll be darned. A practical use for topology. Who'ed'a thunk, except, obviously, cave men. Who came upon the idea honestly : "How do I make this thing last a long time?"

[@tomsaunders383]

Sorry geologist here. Silica doesn't match tool