Late Bronze Age stone axe with a wooden haft from Nagļi (eastern Latvia)

In 2022, a simple shaft­hole stone axe was found in the village of Nagļi, Rēzekne district ineastern Latvia. In contrast to hundreds of other simple shaft­hole axes, this specimen –representing the so­called almond­shaped type – is distinguished by the fragment of a woodenhaft preserved in the shaft hole. This provided a unique opportunity to date the axe: the Nagļiartefact is only the second Bronze Age shaft­hole stone axe that has been directly radiocarbondatedin the eastern Baltic area. The result, 780–540 cal BC, confirms the typochronologicalconclusion that almond­shaped axes were used in Latvia in the Late Bronze Age (1100–500 BC). However, it cannot confirm or refute their continued use in the Pre­Roman Iron Age(500–1 BC). Analysis of the haft revealed that it was made of oak (Quercus sp.), distinguishingit from previously analysed Bronze Age stone and metal axes in the eastern Baltic region,where ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) was often used.