File:Shafthole adze (plan) (FindID 528593).jpg

English: Incomplete gabbroic greenstone cushion macehead or shafthole adze, ovate in plan, tapering slightly towards the butt end, and lozenge-shaped in profile and section. Both ends would have been worked to form an edge which could have been used for chopping as well as hammering. The macehead probably originally from a beach cobble with little reshaping with a coarse surface texture mainly from weathering (Roger Taylor pers comm). It would have then been pecked and ground into shape and the central hole bored by using sand and a drill. The shaft hole is circular in plan and an 'hour-glass' shape in profile, and is 21 mm in diameter in the centre but expands to 31 mm at the edge, suggesting that it has been drilled from both sides. This shape might have improved hafting, especially if the wooden haft was swollen once it was held in the centre. The surviving blade end of the macehead has been damaged through use, and one recent edge fracture at the butt end, but the ragged edge on the side has resulted from fracturing during use, and then further erosion. The greenstone is typical of that found in the west of Cornwall from known outcrops and contains pale felspars and dark amphibole, probably hornblende, inclusions (Dr. Roger Taylor pers comm).

Shafthole adzes may be related to cushion mace-heads in the same way that axe-hammers related to battle-axes, in both cases being larger and less well finished versions of specialized shafthole implements. The cushion mace-heads now have a few associations with Grooved Ware, especially at Barnhouse, Orkney (see Ann Clarke, 2005 in Colin Richards (ed), Dwelling among the Monuments: the Neolithic village of Barnhouse on pages 323-334. Macdonald Institute, Cambridge) (Fiona Roe pers comm).

Similar examples of shafthole adzes from Cornwall have been recorded on to the database in CORN-024454, CORN-8CC3C2 and CORN-30EF13.

Similar shafthole adzes from around the country are illustrated in Stone Axe Studies I, 1979, ed Clough & Cummins, on page 38, Fig 13. There are others from Cornwall in Stone Axe Studies II (Clough & Cummins, 1988): A shafthole adze from St. Merryn, Trevose Golf Links (794/Corn 190), now in the Royal Cornwall Musuem, was found in a supposed kitchen midden. Another damaged example came from English Island Carn, St. Martin's, Scilly (1823/Corn 418) and is said to have been found with flints and pottery that compares with that from Knackyboy Cairn and Halangy, so is perhaps Bronze Age in date. Other shafthole adzes that have been petrologically analysed from the county are listed on pages 143-148: 235/Corn 15, St Clear, Sibbyback Farm; 642/Corn 87, St Ives; 758/Corn 163, Roskestal, West Cliff; 893/Corn 220, Mawgan Porth, St Eval; 895/Corn 221, Davidstow, Wilsey Down.

Edmonds, Sheridan & Tipping (1993) illustrate an example of a cushion macehead from Creag na Caillich, Killin, in Perthshire, on page 107, Illustration 21, which is dated from c.2900-2300 BC.