A Foreign Stone Hammer?
- By Chris Butler (Nov 2005)

This hammer (Fig. 1) was found during building work near Copthorne some years ago, and was recently shown to me by Allan, a resident of Barcombe.

Fig. 2: Stone Hammer from Copthorne

The hammer is made from a quartzite stone, and is 112mm long, 57mm wide at its centre, and weighs 448gms. Both ends of the hammer narrow almost to a point, and have been heavily abraded through use. The central part of the hammer has a shallow groove around its circumference which must have been to assist its hafting into a handle.

It is heavily patinated a dark brown colour over most of its surface, but at its widest point, where it has a shallow groove, it is a much lighter buff colour. This corresponds with the position of a wooden handle, and would suggest that the patination over the rest of the surface was attained during the life of the hammer’s use, and therefore as the presence of a handle appears to have stopped the central part of the hammer patinating it must have still had a handle until recently, and must therefore be a relatively recent artefact.

Although stone hammers are well known from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in Britain, often being found as grave goods, their form is normally more rounded or square. This form is more typical of continental forms of hammers, or those from North America. Given the probable recent date, it is likely that this is a battle-hammer of 18^th-19^th century date brought home from North America, which has then been discarded or lost.