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Arbor Low

What Is It??

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What I wonder is something like this.

A lot of the stone circles date to the Bronze Age, not the Neolithic. As we know in the early to mid Bronze Age stone was still the major tool material. Bronze was a magic thing to so many people. Why stone axes? Why not bronze axes?

I just don't like the specialised axe trade claims. I feel the 'posher' ones would have been choice items and valuable, but I think man's psyche is geared to appreciate beauty and rarity. To a man hundreds of miles from somebody else's sacred axe mine (remote but where a common stone is worked) the axe will be worthless (because it's from a common rock).

Axes like the ones of Lambay porphyry, a type of rock only found exposed on Lambay Island, would be very special and rare. Again it's interesting to note that the axes were only roughed atthe axe factory and finished elsewhere. It could be that this 'elsewhere' is just as or even more important than the site of the factory. An axe pollished at a certain sacred site could be worth more than one prepared elsewhere.

There is definitely something about certain axes, but I don't think anyone's sussed it yet.

Plain fact is, the common or garden Langdale axe did manage to find it's way all over our islands in decent amounts. Most of the ones found in my area are worn or broken and discovered during field walking as opposed to any ritual context. I guess, at a basic level, they were just bloody good tools.
One possible explanation for the later Bronze Age Circles could be that, as I think you've already pointed out, it's not only axes that were traded. Once trading allegiences and presumably kinship was forged, it was easier to maintain established links than forge new ones. So trade carried on with the new metal goods. One hint at this could be Stukeleys report of a 'bronze celt' found ritually buried in the entrance to Mayburgh.
The links between Cumbria and Ireland have always been strong, after all they provided you with your patron saint and now they send you free x-rays on a regular basis c/o Sellafield