Native American, Southwestern United States, southern Colorado, Ancestral Puebloan, (Anasazi), Pueblo I to Pueblo III period, ca. 750 to 1300 CE. An axe blade and a cup or nutting stone with the characteristic ground surface and a roughly hemispherical indentation in the center. The axe blade tip is sharpened to a cutting edge and the butt end is pitted with abrasions, and probably used as a hammer or club. The purpose of cupstones is still debated, but it is probable they were lightweight and portable mortars, that could have been used to grind food - such as nuts- hence the name "nutting stone," as well as shaping or polishing other tools, or as friction fire starters. Cupstones have been discovered in human settlements on nearly every inhabited continent. Size of axe: 5.5" L x 3" W (14 cm x 7.6 cm)

Provenance: private Goldstein collection, Denver, Colorado, USA. The Goldstein's have amassed their collection over the past six decades.

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#177719

Both are intact with surface wear consistent with age and use. Abrasions and chips to blade and smooth surface to cupstone.