Full- and Three-quarter-grooved Axes from the Bob Evans Shelter, Gallia County, Ohio By
James L. Murphy The Ohio Historical Society elude that the two axe forms appeared during
The discovery 01 a fu ll-grooved and a
th e late Archaic but that the three-Quarter­
three-Qua rter-grooved axe in the lowest level
a t t he Bob Evans rock she lter (" Daniel
groo ved axe bega n to supplant th e full·
Boone's Cave") near Rio Grande. Ga!lia Co ..
grooved axe by early Adena times. On ex­
cavated Archaic si tes in t he Ohio Valley .
Oh io, in a rare occurrence of these two heavy
ei ther one type or the other appea rs to pre­
slone too llypes in direct association.
80th axes from the Bob Evans shelter
ponderate . Thus. th e Chiggerville. Ken tucky.
she ll mound yielded 13 full -grooved axes;
were probably de liberately discarded. The
the Ward site. 26. A full-grooved and a three­
bit o f the full-grooved axe was almost entirely
Quar ter-grooved axe were fo und with sepa­
ruined by removal of a large fragment. pos­
rate burials at the Barrett site . The Smith rock
sibly du ring manufact ure. for only one side
of the axe had been polished below the haft­
she lter also yielded both types (one of each)
bu t apparently not in direct associat ion (Webb
ing groove. The th ree-quarter-grooved axe
and H aag, 1947). Through oul the Ken tucky
was al so damaged by rem oval of a chi p from
th e fronl ed ge . immediate ly above the hafting
Archaic si te reports. ihe fu ll-grooved axe is
th e dominan t for m. Ind ian Knoll produced
groove This may have prevented effective
hafting of the axe an d lead to ils disca rdi ng .
nearly 200 axes, all tu ll-grooved : the Read
The two artifacts were fou nd at Ihe very base
shell midden. 39 full-g rooved axes; Carlson
of excavallon in the northern end of the Bob
Annis. 42 full-grooved and four three-Quarter­
Evans shelter A radioca rbon date of 2860
grooved axes . The Parrish si te (Webb. 1951)
B.C +300 -320 years has been obtained on
is especiall y interesting si nce a three-Quarter­
charcoal from this stratigraphic level. which
grooved and a full-grooved axe were bot h
accords w ell with the sca nt archaeological
found with a Single burial. The site also yielded
re mains found in the lowest level of the shel­
20 other full-grooved axes and three three­
ter (Murph y, 1974).
Quarter-grooved ax.es. ln Indiana, the McCain
Little work has been done on the dis tribu­
site has produced 22 three-quarter-grooved
tion of stone axe types in Nort h America .
axes. On the other hand. the Raisch-Smit h
Warren King Moore head lo ng ago prepared
site, one of the few .excavated Ohio Archaic
a manuscriPI on 'The Stone Axe and Its Vari ­
s ites, produced 22 thr ee-quarter-g rooved
ants, " essen tially a study 01 typology and
axes.
distribut ion, aided by Frederick John son and
When coun ty d.ist(ibution of th e tw o axe
Douglas Ol iver. Plans to publish this mono­
types in Ohio is consid ered (Figs . 3 and 4).
graph for Phi llips Academy at Andover by
the influence o f uneve n sa mpl ing is apparenL
Yale University Press apparently ended with
One can not evoke topography or the pre­
M oorehead's death in t939. but a typescript
sum ed distribution of large gam e to explain
copy of the man uscript is housed in The Ohio
the dearth of g rooved axes in sout heaste rn
Hi storica l Society's Arch ives-Manuscripts Di­
Ohio. as has been done for the Sim ilar dis·
vision. wh ere it has been e xamined . Much 01
tribut ion of It uted poi nts (Prufer and Baby,
M oorehead's w ork concerns the abse nce or
1963). It seems far mo re plausible to relate
rarity of the grooved axe in Asia and the Pa­
thi s distrib ution pattern to the compa rativel y
cific, where he perforce is concerned main ly
sma ll amoun t of collecti ng do ne in sou th­
with celt and ad ze forms. In North Am erica,
eastern Ohio. itse lf a rellec tion partly of the
he notes th e absence of the grooved axe in
smaller amount of open tilled ground in that
the northwest, but unfort unate ly his study
region (M urphy , 1975:68). Jt shou ld also be
was never completed and he had litt le to say
borne in mind that this is a rather sm all sta­
abou t the Mississippi and Ohio Valley region.
tistical sample. based onl y upon published
occurrences Un fortunately. comparable dis­
This was remedied somewhat by James
tributiona l data IS not available for neig hbor­
B G riffin , who published his "O bservations
ing states
on The Grooved Axe in North America " in
The two grooved axes from th e Bob Evans
1955. a succinct accou nt of th e d istribut ion
shelter, along with a considerable amount of
of the g rooved axe Thi s has been sup ple·
add it ional arti fact maleria t from thi s shelter,
men ted by Ford ( 1969). Both autho ri ti es con-
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were stolen from !he display at Bob Evans
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