Stone Axe
Neolithic, around 5000 BC. Foxton, Cambridgeshire
Collected by E. Conybeare, MAA 1929.409
This smooth and polished axe is made from jadeite, a stone quarried from high on the slopes of Monte Viso in Italy, yet it was found hundreds of miles away from the source, in Cambridgeshire. Jadeite was highly prized by the first farming communities; most of these fine green axes were not functional tools, but symbols of wealth and power.
