A 6,000-year-old axe head dug up by chance in a German forest is still sharp enough to chop wood.
A German forester was digging out a drinking basin for his Highland cattle when he chanced on the piece of carefully shaped stone.
All that's missing is the wooden handle. The axe-head, 18 centimetres long, still has a clean edge, sharp enough to clear woodland, dress timber or be used as a weapon if need be.
The local archaeologist in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont in northern central Germany, Friedrich-Wilhelm Wulf, can scarcely believe his luck.
"This is an outstandingly well preserved artefact from the Late Stone Age," Wulf said of the find, near the village of Doerpe.
Archaelogists call this axe-head type "pointed-poll" or "pointed-butt" in reference to its shape at the blade end.
Shaping the stone took a lot of work and it would have been very valuable to its owner.
Wulf says the find is all the more significant as there are few artefacts from this period around 4,000 BC in Germany in what is known as the Michelsberg Culture.
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