File:Langdale axe (FindID 846778).jpg

English: Neolithic Langdale axe dating from c. 2500-2100BC. The axe is somewhat worn and abraded with some older damage and a few recent chips taken off. The axe was ground and polished and has a very smooth, shiny surface. It is now of dirty-white/beige colour but was probably dark blueish green to start with. The axe is knapped from a light blueish/grey buff volcanic tuff. This axe is, like many of the larger and finished (polished) Langdale axes, sub-rectangular plan with distinctive humped faces. The axe fragment has been damaged in several areas (old and fresh damage). The recent damage can be seen as a number of distinct hinge fractures and relatively deep and uncontrolled flakes located along both long edges of the axe and especially the butt area. The overall surface is well patinated (unlike the small areas of modern damage at the butt which are darker in colour).

It is impossible to source axes such as these without a detailed petrological analysis of the rock. This would allow the original source of the rock to be established. However, the weathered colour of the tuff is typically similar to a number of axes in the collection of Kendal Museum and Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle, which have been petrographically tested as coming from the Langdale source (Group VI). Considering that this is a find from Northern England, Langdale seems to be the most likely source.

This rock type is formed from compressed volcanic ash and has a fine grained composition with infrequent crystalline inclusions. Tuff is found in Britain and Ireland in a band that runs down the Irish Sea from the Lake District (the Langdale's source Group VI), County Antrim (Ireland), through North Wales (Graig Lwyd Group VII), and into Cornwall and Devon (Groups XVI and IV respectively). Volcanic tuff is similar to flint in that it can be finely worked, ground and polished to form a variety of tools; however axes are the most common find type and were used across Northern Europe during the Neolithic period.