This fantastic THREE - QUARTER GROOVE AXE comes from the Steve Lee Collection. It was found in Miller Co Missouri and is a particularly fine Axe with polish in all the right places. It will free stand on both the top and bottom. The bottom is also lightly fluted. There is no damage to the bit or poll. A beautiful example like this one is a must have for Hardstone collectors. This one would look framed with others of its type!  Axes, Celts, Bannerstones, Adzes, and most hardstone (non chert) artifacts are manufactured by an ancient procedure called pecking and grinding. A suitable size stone was picked out with attention to quality, absence of natural or weather related fractures. It would have been picked out for its hardness, workability, and size. Then, the stone is rough shaped by percussion with another stone or, if the stone was close to the intended form, pecking would be first choice of reduction. After the overall surface imperfections are pecked out, grinding would be next to smooth the high areas to a flat surface. This process was repeated many times to get the desired result. The final step in some cases was polishing. Some artifacts were polished simply from use wear and others were intentionally polished when they were made. Size 4.76 inches in length.   AX2         3.13 inches tall.         2.05 inches thick.