Langdale axe industry

[1][9][10][11][12] Typical finds include reject axes, rough-outs and blades created by knapping large lumps of the rock found in the scree or perhaps by simple quarrying or opencast mining.

Other outcrops in the area are known to have been worked, especially on Harrison Stickle, and Scafell Pike where rough-outs and flakes have been found on platforms below the peaks at and above the 2000- or 3000-foot level.

In Maryport (Cumbria) it was selected for tool manufacture in the Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic[14] Archaeologists are able to identify the unique nature of the Langdale stone by taking sections and examining them using microscopy.

The highly polished final product were usually made elsewhere, such as at Ehenside Tarn in the western fringes of the Lake District, and all were traded on throughout Britain and Ireland.

Flint was also commonly used to make polished axes, and mined at several places, but especially at Grimes Graves and Cissbury, and in continental Europe at Spiennes in Belgium, and Krzemionki in Poland.

Fractures occur more easily in brittle materials like stone when rough owing to the stress concentrations present at sharp corners, holes and other defects in the axe surface.

But other hard and tough stones were used, such as igneous rocks from Penmaenmawr in North Wales, and similar working areas to Langdale have been found there.

Many other locations for production of axes have been suggested (but not always found) across the country including Tievebulliagh in County Antrim, sites in Cornwall, Scotland and the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire.

The industry was also widely developed elsewhere in the world, such as in Australia at Mount William stone axe quarry which used a similar rock until relatively recent times.

[16][17] The altitude and rough terrain of the archaeological sites have protected them from types of damage caused by human settlement in lowland areas.

People have removed axes (although current thinking is that they should be left in situ) and have caused inadvertent damage to stone scatters by walking.

[18] Since the 1990s eroded paths in the Lake District, including Great Langdale, have been repaired by a "Fix the Fells" project in which the National Trust is the major partner.