Stone axe

The asymmetrical stone axe with a slanting handle was donated to the archaeological collection of the Provincial Museum of Pomeranian Antiquities in Szczecin (Provinzialmuseum Pommerscher Altertümer; after 1934 Pommersches Landesmuseum) in 1932 by professor of education Emil Wille (1847-1937), a secondary school teacher, historian and protector of archaeological monuments in the then district of Szczecinek. He received it from a teacher Kaddatz, who excavated it from an old wall of a village church in Ostroróg (German: Scharpenort). Originally, according to data obtained from E. Wille, the find was attributed to the nearby village of Jeziorna (German: Flacksee). In the same year, in the illustrated monthly magazine "Unser Pommerland", the axe was published in an article devoted to the prehistory of the Drahim area. The author, Dr Otto Kunkel, Director of the museum in Szczecin and Pomeranian conservator of archaeological monuments, pointed out that it was probably a discovery from the surrounding fields, which was not accidentally found in the church wall. He also thought that such a procedure could have been motivated by the superstitious treatment of objects made centuries ago. He described the object as an agricultural tool, the so-called cut - blade, which was attached to the ploughshare. According to O. Kunkel, the object also has features going beyond utilitarian functions, connected with the sphere of beliefs or property marking. It is evidenced by the presence of a circular mark, i.e. a trace of initial drilling made with a bone pipe drill, visible next to the drilled hole. Stone products such as the finding from Ostroróg are a development of the form of the so-called shoemaker's hoes, tools resembling shoemaker's lasts. Unlike them, they have a hole drilled parallel to the blade, but when laid on their narrow side they take on the appearance of such hoes. These are characteristic tools of the oldest agricultural communities from the Corded Ware cultures.

Krzysztof Kowalski