Summary

This impressive mace head from Ireland dates to the Neolithic period (4000BCE to 2500BCE). It came to the museum in 1913 as one of 14 Irish archaeological objects that also included scrapers, axes and a knife.
The source was Professor Lucas White King (1856-1925), a scholar who resided at Roebuck Hall in Dublin County. Born in India to Irish parents, King occupied high colonial positions in the prized colony before returning to Ireland in the early twentieth century and taking up an academic position at Trinity College Dublin as a scholar of India and languages. Made rich from a life in the British Empire, White King's assiduous collecting of Irish artefacts shared his attentions with a love of shooting (Edwards, 2009).
In August 1912, King wrote to the National Museum of Victoria that "I am anxious to secure specimens of Tasmanian, Australian and S. Pacific Stone implements". He asked if the museum possessed any duplicates or if its experts might suggest a dealer. The letter bore fruit, and the following year the museum despatched Australian cultural materials to King in exchange for items such as this one.

Bibliography
Ruth Dudley Edwards, 'King, Sir Lucas White', Dictionary of Irish Biography, 2009, available at https://www.dib.ie/biography/king-sir-lucas-white-a9258, accessed 2 October 2025.
Lucas White King, Correspondence, 1912, Museums Victoria Archives, OLDERSYSTEM-02789, MV ARCHIVES - NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VICTORIA, Inwards Correspondence - 1900-1931 - Keogh, A. to Kirkpatrick. C.

Acknowledgements
With thanks to Professor Mark Moore of the Museum of Stone Tools, University of New England

Physical Description

A large mace head made of stone with a perforation in the centre.

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