Towards the end of the Linear Pottery culture (German: "Linearbandkeramik", "LBK"), around 5000 BC, the first perforated stone tools appear.
Initially they retain the form of “shoe-last” adzes, but becoming broader with a more rectangular cross-section resulting in the well-known broad wedges (‘Breitkeil’) of the Rössen Culture during the Middle Neolithic. The perforations in these frequently very heavy axes are remarkably small, often not more than 15 mm in diameter. They are always drilled parallel to the cutting edge, suggesting a more axe-like handling. In Central Europe the use of genuine axes hafted with the cutting edge parallel to the handle starts to appear only in the 5th millennium and becomes the dominant heavy woodworking tool with the emergence of the Michelsberg culture in western Central Europe in the second half of the 5th millennium. At the same time we see the development of polished flint axes in Northern Europe with the emergence of the Funnel Beaker Culture (German: "Trichterbecherkultur").
References
- Elburg, Rengert; Hein, Wulf; Probst, Anja; Walter, Peter: Field trials in Neolithic woodworking – (Re)Learning to use Early Neolithic stone adzes. In: Kelm, Rüdiger (Ed.): Archeology and Crafts : Experiences and Experiments on traditional Skills and Handicrafts in Archeological Open-Air Museums in Europe (Proceedings of the VI. OpenArch-Conferencein Albersdorf, Germany, 23.–27. September 2013) Husum 2015, pp. 62-77. PDF Online.