RARE AND LARGE NEOLITHIC FLINT DAGGER

Ca. 2000–1700 BC. Neolithic period, NORTHERN EUROOE / SCANDINAVIA. A beautiful nordic flint dagger, grey in colour, with an elongated leaf-shaped blade convex on both sides, with sharp edges, the shoulders sloping to the long handle shaft, triangular in section, terminating in a fish-tailed butt. The worked flint daggers were much sought-after among the farming societies in Denmark at the end of the third millennium BC. They came into use all over the country but were mainly made in northern Jutland and southeastern Denmark. While many of the flint implements of the Stone Age such as axes and knives were essential to life, the daggers do not seem to have been usable for everyday activities. They had another function. They were prestige objects that were used to show the owner’s status. In the men’s graves of the Dagger Period, the daggers lie by the waist of the body. For a similar example see no. 505, p. 121 in Glob, P. V. (1948). 'Danish Antiquities: Late Stone Age', vol. II; and no. 4.220, p. 80 in McAlpine of West Green, Brown, MacGregor, Brown, Ann, MacGregor, Arthur, Ashmolean Museum, & University of Oxford. (1987). Antiquities from Europe and the Near East in the collection of the Lord McAlpine of West Green. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum. Provenance: Private UK Collection. Danish collection, 1950s-1990s. Private Belgium collection between 1997-2007; then sold to a British collector. Size: L:280mm / W:46mm ; 175g