Axe head, USA

This ground stone axehead is grooved around three sides for haft bindings. It is very old, probably from the Archaic period (8,000BC to 1,000 BC). Archaeologist Horatio Nelson Rust excavated the axe head in the Illinois area in 1877.

Horatio Nelson Rust was an American archaeologist who had multiple careers and travelled widely across the United States. The original axe became part of the collection of Sir John Evans, an archaeologist and geologist, and was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum by his son, Sir Arthur Evans, an archaeologist and Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in 1928. 

Accession number: 1928.68.65