Archaeologists discover worrying signs of axe addiction in Dutch prehistory: 'It set the Netherlands back for at least two millennia'
Are you worried about your smartphone addiction? Trust us, it could have been far worse… A shocking discovery, by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from Leiden University, revealed that Neolithic people were heavily addicted to stone axes. The axes were produced under horrific circumstances in flint mining areas in the local south (notably in southern Limburg).
Axe addiction
Archaeologists assumed that these axes were used for woodworking and forest clearing. But a micro-wear study on Neolithic axes in the western Netherlands demonstrated that axes were not used for such purposes. Invariably the axes yielded extensive handling traces. PhD candidate Lasse van den Dikkenberg, who specialises in micro-wear analysis and Neolithic addictions notes: 'It seems that people just liked holding, handling, and looking at axes.’
Osteological analyses on skeletons from the region furthermore revealed that people spend about 5 to 8 hours a day simply ‘staring’ at axes. The axe addiction wave reached epidemic proportions around 3000 BCE. 'People spent so much time looking at their axes that they began to neglect their fields and farm animals. The people of the Vlaardingen Culture even partially reverted back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to make more time to look at their axes.'
Zoning out
'As soon as people were introduced to polished axes they seemed to ‘zone out’, Van den Dikkenberg explains, 'neglecting daily chores and social contacts. From a technological point of view the epidemic set the Netherlands back for at least two millennia.’
These polished rocks acted as physical and metaphysical mirrors. If you look closely at a polished axe you can see your own reflection, and we can imagine they were important tools for self-reflection. Lacking photography, these axes provided the only portable devices which people could use to look at themselves. It will be difficult for some of us to understand this obsession with the self, but it seems that for Neolithic people the most cherished possession was a portable selfie.