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Lot 108A
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Pair of Archaic Hardstone Full Grooved Axe Heads
Pair of Archaic Hardstone Full Grooved Axe Heads
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Native American, Archaic to Formative period,, ca. 4000 BCE – 1000 CE. A matched pair of full-grooved stone axe heads, each shaped from a dense granitoid cobble flecked with feldspar and quartz, their bodies swelling to rounded polls and tapering toward working bits, each encircled at the upper third by a groove cut cleanly around all four faces. The makers chose speckled stone of stubborn hardness and worked it by the slow grammar of ground-stone manufacture, pecking the rough blank into shape and then abrading it against coarser stone until the surface took on its even, water-smoothed sheen. The fully encircling channel is the telling feature, a closed track that seated a steam-bent or split wooden handle lashed tight with rawhide or sinew, gripping the head on every side rather than against a single flat panel. Size of larger: 6.8" L x 2.5" W x 2.7" D (17.3 cm L x 6.3 cm W x 6.9 cm D).

The full groove is the elder form in the long evolution of the hafted stone axe, the technology that preceded the three-quarter groove and the ungrooved celt that followed it in turn. Tools of this weight were the heavy industry of their age, swung to fell standing timber, to girdle trees and open the canopy, to hollow dugout canoes and clear the small horticultural plots around which an increasingly settled life took shape. The labor folded into each one, days of pecking and grinding for a single working edge, marks them as curated possessions rather than disposable equipment, objects worth keeping, repairing, and perhaps carrying from one generation to the next.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 200498

  • Condition: Excellent. Some light weathering and surface wear, but, otherwise, both are intact and excellent with smooth surfaces.

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by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Artemis Fine Arts

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000