Stone Cherokee ax ???

[dragon725]

Today I was in the woods in Tennessee looking around for a sassafras tree to dig up so I could make some tea for my wife. Then a stone laying on the ground caught my eye I noticed it looked like a ax head. Then after a second glance I could see the leather straps holding the ax and the handle together. Then as careful as I could I lifted the ax off the ground then I noticed that termites had almost eaten the entire ax handle. Here are the pics I took in the hopes that somebody could give me some sort of ID on it.

 

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[traderoftreasures]

wow wow wow that's the first time i saw one with handle
possibly cherokee due to location, but not necessarily. could have been enemy
that is one sweet find. post under american indian artifacts for more views. thanks for sharing

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Very nice artifact! wow

 

[dragon725]

Thanks guys , I have never had much luck in the past hunting native American artifacts. But what I am excited about is I found the ax in the woods about 100 yards from my front door. I plan on spending some times in the woods to see if there is anything else I could find. Here are the first pics I took after I got it out of the woods.

 

[dragon725]

Initially I was skeptical as I read your post, but your pictures are certainly very intriguing.

I do not personally know anything about stone axe hafting techniques, but I see some interesting attributes in the piece you found, most notably that the wood is bent in a curve around the poll of the axe. It is a nice bit of work, and it looks like what I would expect to see. Is there any evidence of any "sticky" binding agents persent in the wood fibers?

If possible, much clearer close up would be helpful to see details of the construction.

I am looking forward to see what other people say.

I just resized and compressed the pics and put started a thread in the Indian artifacts section the pics are 800 x 600 now so they are much bigger now. The curved handle also cought my eye that wood is very dried out and brittle it wouldn't take much to break it. So I am having to be very careful but there doesn't apper to be anything in the wood fibers but I can see a very small knock on the wood.

 

[traderoftreasures]

o yeah i forgot to tell you that they recommend that you DO NOT DRINK sassafras tee any more becouse of some kind of cancer causing carcinagins i think if anyone else knows please put in your two cents worth

 

[jsandin]

o yeah i forgot to tell you that they recommend that you DO NOT DRINK sassafras tee any more becouse of some kind of cancer causing carcinagins i think if anyone else knows please put in your two cents worth

Filé is powdered sassafras. I'm not giving up gumbo, though. I think food manufacturers have learned how to refine sassafras to eliminate unwanted elements.

Is it possible to tell what kind of wood that handle is made from? Maybe Osage Orange wood resists termites better than most wood.

 

[One mans trash...]

Osage orange is known around here as Bois d'Arc. Heavy and tough and favored for things like bows, as the local name suggests. And for tool handles, as it resists rot. The natives would travel some distance to obtain it. If you set out to cut up a bois d'arc tree, bring your lunch.

 

[traderoftreasures]

osage orange is known as hedge apple or hedge tree here

 

[Swingit]

Awesome Find
HH!!
Swingit

 

[traderoftreasures]

here is some more info on sassafras

 

[goldguru]

I gotta Vote Banner for such a complete artifact.. nice find

 

[NGE]

AWESOME FIND! I would say banner also......NGE

 

[jsandin]

How long can leather last in the woods in Tennessee?

 

[traderoftreasures]

yes your right probably found years ago and some ol' coot put a handle on it and then lost it again still interesting to see possible ways of attachment. i have a few other ideas on the hafting myself. still sweet

 

[Kiros32]

I must agree that its unlikely that the original leather and wooden handle has survived this long, especially considering how and where it was found. From your post I gather that you found it lying on top of the ground in a wooded area. This means it would have been exposed to the elements for centuries, ie rain, leaf litter, wind, etc.

I am certainly no expert and your find is certainly intriguing. Post this in the Native American forum here on TNet and see what that crew has to offer.

 

[dragon725]

The handle is the part I couldn't figure out after thinking about it. I was thinking that if a person found it as early as 100 years ago why would they use leather to hold the 2 parts of the handle together I would have thought they would have just drove a few nails in it. So after thinking about it I decided to send my pics to the University of Tennessee museum. I didn't really expect to get a answer but got one back today. Here is the email I just received. The ax head is the oldest artifact I have as of now.

The ax head appears to be prehistoric dating to the Late Archaic period, ca. 2000 B.C. It is unlikely that the hafting is of the same period since it would have long ago decayed. My guess is that someone hafted a prehistoric ax in the recent past and left it/lost it. If this was found in one of the dry caves of the cumberland plateau, it could well be authentic since organic materials have been preserved in some of these caves.
Jeff Chapman, Director

 

[Kiros32]

Yeah I would say its going to be difficult to top 4000 years!!!! Awesome find man!

 

[Mental Granny]

I too believe the head is authentic but, I bet some little boy some years ago found it tied new handle on it and found himself a wonderful new ax for playing cowboys and indians.

 

[NGE]

Sure glad my brother didn't have one of those when we were young and playing cowboys and injuns. We were chaisng each other around the family car, when I stopped and waited for my brother to come around, then "BAM" I cracked him on top of his head with the butt of my Roy Rogers cap gun. When he got up, he wailed the tar out of me, like I said, Sure glad he didn't have a stone axe......NGE