Early 3rd millennium BC. A ground and polished axe-hammer with slightly convex blade, large perforation and flat striking face to the rear. 570 grams, 12cm (4 3/4"). Property of a lady living in Kent, UK; formerly part of her grandfather's collection; acquired in Germany after WWII; thence by descent 2006. Corded Ware Culture was prevalent in large areas of Europe from the Rhine to the Volga in the 3rd millennium BC, encompassing the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in these areas. Its heartland appears to have been the Central European Plain in the region of modern Germany and Poland, and is largely coterminous with the Single Grave Culture in which burial takes place in a crouched or fetal posture, beneath an earth mound. It is characterised by inclusion in graves of distinctive ceramic vessels decorated by impressing twisted cords into the wet clay. The presence of a flint blade and multiple stone shaft-hole axeheads is typical of the burial rite for northern Europe. [No Reserve] Fine condition.