Summary

This axe was found in or close to Lough Neagh, the vast lake to the west of Belfast in today's Northern Ireland that antiquarians began to scour during the mid-nineteenth century. Its smooth surface suggests that it was ground or polished, which would place it within the Neolithic period. This axe entered the ethnological collection (then managed by the National Gallery of Victoria) in 1892. It was procured for the collection by Augustus Wollaston Franks, Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography at the British Museum, as part of an exchange initiated by the Board of Trustees of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria. At 32 centimetres in length, the axe was singled out in the acquisition paperwork for its "unusual size". The number '133' on the label hints at another collection of which it was once part.

Physical Description

A large stone axe with a label that states its origins as '133. Lough Neagh'.

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