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Lot 108C
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Archaic Native American Greenstone 3/4-Grooved Axe Head - Hafted Tool
Archaic Native American Greenstone 3/4-Grooved Axe Head - Hafted Tool
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Native American, Archaic period,, ca. 4000–1000 BCE. A full-bodied axe head ground from dark greenstone, its rounded poll swelling toward a tapered bit, the whole banded near the top by a groove that wraps three faces and leaves the fourth a flat, ungrooved panel. The maker began with a dense, fine-grained cobble of altered basalt or diorite, the kind of tough, slightly greenish stone prized for its resistance to shattering, and reduced it through patient pecking before grinding the surface to its even, satiny finish. The three-quarter groove is the defining technical signature, a channel cut around the upper third on three sides while the back was left flat to seat flush against a steam-bent or split wooden handle, lashed tight through the groove with rawhide or sinew. Pale mineral flecking and a faint reddish bloom scatter across the surface, the natural inclusions of the parent stone surfacing through long burial. Size: 4.2" W x 2.5" H x 2.4" D (10.7 cm W x 6.3 cm H x 6.1 cm D).

The three-quarter groove marks a refinement in a tradition that stretched across millennia. Where the older full-grooved axe encircled the head completely, the three-quarter form left one face flat, an innovation that let the head ride more securely against the haft and resist the twisting torque of a heavy blow. Axes of this weight were the prime movers of the Archaic forest economy, swung to fell timber, to girdle and clear, to hollow dugout canoes and shape the wooden architecture of daily life, the closest thing the period had to heavy machinery.

The hours compressed into such an object, days of grinding to bring a single edge to true, argue that it was no disposable implement but a curated possession, kept and resharpened and likely valued well beyond its working function. Greenstone in particular carried a quiet prestige, its color and density setting it above ordinary fieldstone, and finely finished examples sometimes accompanied their owners into the grave. Ground stone surrenders its age grudgingly, offering neither inscription nor decoration to date it, and speaks instead through form and manufacture, where the closed back and three-sided channel place this firmly in the long Archaic centuries when the hafted axe stood among the most consequential tools a community could make.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA Collection; ex-private Denver, Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Flushing, New York and Ridgeway, Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 203002

  • Condition: Very Good. Chipping, nicks, and abrasions as shown, all commensurate with age. Scattered earthen deposits to surface.

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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
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$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