Polished Axe with Petroglyph (014-301P-014)

3D Model

This remarkable artifact was recovered as a part of a salvage archaeology operation in an area known to have been used in both the Archaic Period (7500 BCE - 600 CE) and Pueblo Periods (600 - 1598 CE). It appears to be a distal end of a stone axe. Several axes have been recorded on Mesa Prieta, both complete and fragmentary, with this being one of the latter. It is remarkable for at few reasons. First, the greenish stone from which it is made is not local, which is unusual for axes. Second, it has a strikingly clear petroglyph design - a turkey track/foot - on one face. Third and perhaps most intriguingly, its context and design are of ambiguous age, and while it is most dates to the Pueblo Periods known as the Developmental (600-1100 CE), Coalition (1100 - 1300 CE) and Classic (1300 - 1598 CE). it would not be out of place in the Late Archaic (1500 BCE - 600 CE).