page_title: Prehistoric Ireland
section_title: Portable artefacts
hierarchical_section_title: Prehistoric Ireland / Neolithic (4000–2500 BC) / Portable artefacts
caption_attribution_description: English: Hoard of Neolithic axes dating to 4,500-2,500 BCE, found at Danesfort, on the Malone Road, in Belfast some time between 1869 and 1918. 16 large porcellanite axes (a few very large examples too large to be used as tools). The largest axes are highly polished and unused a putative indicator of ritual deposition.When they were found during work on the land surrounding Danesfort House some were standing upright in the ground which also indicates ritual. The two main sources of porcellanite are Tievebulliagh Mountain, near Cushendall, Co. Antrim and at Brockley, on Rathlin Island, County Antrim.
context_page_description: The prehistory of Ireland, pieced together from archaeological evidence, begins with the first evidence of humans in Ireland around 10,500 BC, and finishes with the start of the historical record around 400 AD. Both of these dates are later than for much of Europe and all of the Near East. The prehistoric period covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age societies of Ireland. For much of Europe, the historical record begins when the Romans invaded; as Ireland was not invaded by the Romans its historical record starts later, with the coming of Christianity.
  The two periods that have left the most spectacular groups of remains are the Neolithic, with its megalithic tombs, and the gold jewellery of the Bronze Age, when Ireland was a major centre of gold mining.
  Ireland has many areas of bogland, and a great number of archaeological finds have been recovered from these. The anaerobic conditions sometimes preserve organic materials exceptionally well, as with a number of bog bodies, a Mesolithic wicker fish-trap, and a Bronze Age textile with delicate tassels of horse hair.
context_section_description: The stone axe was the primary and essential tool for farming, carefully made in a variety of styles, and often polished.  The products of axe factories next to sources of porcellanite, an especially good stone, were traded across Ireland; the main ones were Tievebulliagh and Rathlin Island, both in County Antrim.  There were also imports from Britain, including products of the Langdale axe industry of the English Lake District.
  There was a much rarer class of imported prestige axe head made from jadeite from north Italy; these may have been slowly traded across Europe to reach Ireland over a period reaching into centuries, and show no signs of use.  Miniature axes, too small to be useful, were made, and a "tiny porcellanite axe" has been found in a passage tomb; another example has a hole for a cord, and may have been worn as jewellery or an amulet.  Other stone shapes made were chisels, adzes, maces and spearheads.  Only one decorated macehead has been found, in one of the tombs at Knowth, but it is extremely fine.  Some finds may also be miniature maceheads.
  Pierced beads and pendants are found, and two necklaces of shells (from Phoenix Park in Dublin) are very carefully made, with graded periwinkle shells; these were on  the remains of two males.  As an example of the exceptional preservation sometimes possible in items found in anaerobic bogs, part of a finely woven bag with circular handles has survived; it used reedy plant material wound round thin strips of wood.  Decorated pottery, apparently made for funerary rather than domestic use, appears to imitate basketry patterns.
caption: The Malone Hoard of 19 luxury polished Antrim porcellanite axe-heads, dated 4,500-2,500 BC, found in Belfast, Ulster Museum.
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