I - THE SURINAM AXE (see picture above)
I-1 The find and recovery circumstances
A stone axe with handle was found in the middle of the Suriname River near the junction with Klaaskreek (Figure 1) during dredging operations. It was recovered by an employee of a small mining company in November 1998. The employee showed the axe on 15 December 1998 to Mr. van Putten of the Suriname Museum in Paramaribo. The owner was willing to leave the object at the Museum for further study. The Museum bought the axe a few weeks later. The axe is part of the permanent exposition of the Suriname Museum at Fort Zeelandia since January 1999. Some information on the axe and its find circumstances is given in a newspaper article published in Paramaribo (De Ware Tijd 6 March 1999).

I-2 Description of the axe
The measurements of the axe are:
- max length 73.5 cm
- diameter of the handle is 2.5 cm on the average
- the max. width of the stone part is 9.5 cm
- the length of the stone part measured (from the cutting edge) over (and including) the handle is max. 15 cm.
- Thickness still has to be measured.

The condition of the axe
The axe consists of three parts:
- the stone blade
- the wooden handle
- the part that connects the handle and the blade

1. The stone blade
The thin stone blade is well-polished, its cutting edge is sharpened, and it has a grey-green color that is often found in the best quality prehistoric axes in the Guianas. It is a fine-grained specimen. There is a small dark-colored spot near the cutting edge. The blade is completely undamaged (Figure 2).
A hafting part of resin or natural rubber covers the upper area of the stone blade (Figure 3). It can be one of two shapes: the winged, straight-edged type (Boomert, 1979:fig. 13) and the single-edged concave-side trapezoidal type (Boomert, 1979:fig. 15).

2. The handle
The handle is extremely long and straight (Figure 4). None of the other complete axes has a similar length (73.5 cm). It is also thin at 2.5 cm. It is an unmodified branch of a tree. The thin handle renders it improbable that the blade is inserted into the handle. It probably rests against the handle and is thus one of the two main types of hafting (see below). The wood species has not yet been analysed, but it probably is one of the strong species. For the wood species used by recent Indians for their axe handles see below. The exterior of the handle is cracked (Figure 5) as a result of immersion in water during centuries and the exposure to oxygen and dry conditions for several weeks after the recovery from the river. The cracking is reminiscent of the structure of bark.

3. The part that connects the handle and the blade
A large and thick hafting part is present, connecting the handle and blade. The material was not analysed up to now. However - judging on the basis of comparable hafting materials - it is natural rubber (called balata in Suriname, Manilkara bidentata; Sapotaceae) or a tree resin. Balata gum - used frequently to fit feathers to arrows or fix points to them - could be a good fixing material. On the top of the resin part faint traces of crossed lines (angle ca 45 degrees) are visible (Figure 6). They certainly stem from binding materials that have originally been used.
Also noteworthy are circular indentations at both sides in the resin hafting part (Figure 7). These are not known from other specimens. None of the eight (more or less) complete specimens known from the area between the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers shows such circular indentations. They might serve for the fixing of small circular ornaments, or, more probably, mark the end of a transverse pin that connects the blade and the resin hafting. If the latter is true, the blade has a perforation to fit such a pin. Only an X-ray photograph of this artefact can show the presence of such a hole. There are four stone axe-blades known from Surinam with one or two holes (Boomert, 1979:108; figs 3, 10), but these are in the centre of the blade. One stone axe with a hole was recovered in the last century in Amapá in Brazil as is mentioned by Boomert (1979:108, after Uhle, 1889).
The resin of the presently studied axe is broken at two sides parallel to the handle part. Perpendicular to this, a crack breaks up one of the sides of the hafting material (Figure 8). In spite of the cracks, the hafting material still holds blade and handle together well. One of these cracks shows that there is still another component inside. A thickly fluid tar-like component slowly leaks from the inside when the axe is turned upside down.

I-3 The stone species of the blade
Boomert & Kroonenberg studied in the Seventies more than 500 cutting tools from archaeological sites in Suriname, among which were more than 300 axes. Their discussion of stone materials used for cutting tools is clear, their sample is large, and there is no problem classifying the material of this specific axe. They also discuss the geologic background of cutting tools at length: we cite them here:
''No less than 97% of the cutting tools is composed of quartz-free massive rocks (out of 514 specimens studied) and only eight artifacts are made of quartz-free schistose rocks (2%). Still fewer specimens (1%) consist of quartz-bearing rock types .(...). ... the quartz content was critical in choosing suitable stones for the manufacture of cutting tools. The reason is obvious: much quartz is a disadvantage for cutting tools as it is difficult to polish or sharpen. Schistose rocks were of course unpopular because of their fissibility. Within the quartz-free massive category there existed a significant preference for the metabasalts. 302 cutting tools are of this class of rock (57% of the quartz-free massive group). Dolerites range second (25.5%) and metadolerites third (14%). This general pattern also applies to the specific types of cutting tools: axes, chisels and adzes. So the grain size was the second criterion in choosing stones for cutting tools. Within the quartz-free main category very fine-grained rocks also prevail.'' (Boomert & Kroonenberg, 1977:31).
On the metabasalt used for the majority of cutting tools they state:
"The distribution of metabasalts is restricted to the Paramaka- formation (Nassau Series) of the Marowijne Group. They occur almost exclusively in central Surinam and the adjoining parts of French Guiana. Metabasalts are the principal rocks underlying the laterite-bauxite caps of the Brownsberg, Nassau and Lely Mountains. River exposures are very scarce. The only one known to the authors is situated in the Suriname River, where it has been excavated in recent times for the construction of the Afobaka dam because of its good mechanical properties (and proximity to the dam site). Metabasalt is not found W of the Saramacca River until W of the Essequibo River in Guyana, except for a small development in the Matapi Creek near the Corantijn River.''(Boomert & Kroonenberg, 1977:23-24).
The conclusion is that cutting tools (especially axes) in Suriname were mainly made of metabasalt and of metadolerite. The fine grain of the presently studied specimen suggests that the stone is metabasalt.

II - COMPARABLE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AXES FROM THE GUIANAS
Eight stone axes with (parts of) handles have been recovered from rivers in the Guianas (i.e. the area between Amazon, the Orinoco and the Atlantic Ocean). Six stem from French Guiana (Middle and Lower Approuague River), one from Brazil (a beach near Belém), and one from Guyana (Upper Mazaruni River).
All six Fr. Guiana specimens were found by gold collectors who dredged in rivers and creeks. All come from the Approuague River or its affluents. Four specimens from French Guiana are of the same type (the blade is against - not in - the handle and resin is used) as the Suriname specimen. The two other axes are hafted by inclusion of the blade in the handle:

1. One specimen originates from the Matarony River (Lower Approuague River, French Guiana).
This winged axe of greenstone was recovered complete with handle in 1984 (Figure 9). It is in a private collection.
- Blade: dimensions: 9 cm heigth x 7 cm length at the butt (4 cm at the cutting edge). Thickness is 2.5 cm (Figure 10).
- Handle: length 58 cm. Diameter 2 cm. The handle has an irregular surface. It was made of an unworked branch.
- Hafting: the blade is set against the handle (non-inclusion). It is kept in place by adhesive materials. Traces of repair of a clear colour, present on the adhesive material, show that this split up, and subsequently was repaired (Figure 11).

2. Axe from the Approuague River (French Guiana)
- Blade: the shape of the blade is trapezoidal with a narrow cutting edge and probably a winged butt (this is not certain until an X-ray photograph is available). The size of the blade is 10 x 7 x 3 cm (Figure 12).
- Hafting: the handle is lacking, but the resinous hafting part is present. This shows the negative shape of a handle of ca 2 cm thickness. There are traces of the crossed and also of the parallel type of binding. The latter is parallel to the handle. The type of hafting is non-inclusion.

3. Axe from crique Benoit (Middle Approuague, French Guiana).
This axe was discovered at 3 m of depth in the Benoit Creek, Middle Approuague in 1991. Coll° Tabeedin, Service Régional de l'Archéologie, Cayenne (Figure 13).
- Blade: simple trapezoidal; dimensions length 12 cm x 10 cm x 2.7 cm.
- Handle: only a part of the handle (length 17.5 cm, blade side) is preserved. The diameter of the handle is 2.8 cm. The handle seems to have been sawed off at ca 5 cm from the blade.
- Hafting: the balata or resin is white and soft, 4.6 cm thick around the stone. It is mixed with tubular particles of charcoal. The mixture is grey-blue; it is really a mixture. Small cracking of the balata. The blade is against the handle (non-inclusion). There is resinous material with carbon particles connecting the handle to the blade.

4. Axe from Saut Tourépé (Lower Approuague, French Guiana).
This axe was found below the Tourépé Falls in the Lower Approuague in 1988, coll° Cauvin, A.R.A. (Figure 14)
- Blade: notched rectangular, size 6 x 5.3 x 2 cm.
- Handle: the 17 cm long and 2 cm thick handle shows an upright human figure.
- Hafting: the notched blade, placed against the back side of the head of the human figure, is kept in place by adhesive material.
The individual is indicated by lips, nose, eyes, head covering, two arms on the stomach; there are two separate legs and a third item that could represent a loincloth. Cross bindings strengthen the hafting. The bindings have gone at present but have left their traces in the adhesive material (resin or natural rubber). This handle makes the tool a not very practical proposition for cutting activities by its size and shape, if not totally useless. It has a limited functional value as a tool, but probably it had a high symbolical value. The fact that the head of the person was originally masked by the binding materials strengthens the opinion that this artefact had a symbolical value (Figure 15).

5. Axe from Saut Mapaou (Lower Approuague, French Guiana).
This axe was found at the lower end of the Mapaou Rapids in 1984, coll° Saub, A.G.A.E., Cayenne (Figure 16).
- Blade: dimensions: 17 x 6.2 cm. The weight of the stone is 1040 gr. The blade is simple and rectangular. The stone is an andesitic tuffa.
- Handle: 64 cm long and the diameter is 2.4 cm; diameter of the handle at the head is max 7.2 cm. The latter is thicker in the upper part, where the blade is situated. The wood is a Duroia (Figure 17).
- Hafting: the stone of this axe is inserted into the handle. There is adhesive material between handle and blade, also in the cavity.The wood of the handle has been dated 14C at 410 ± 60 y BP (GIF 6956), calibrated 1429-1516 AD (Figure 18).

6. Axe from Saut Mapaou (Lower Approuague, French Guiana).
This axe was also found at the lower end of the Mapaou Rapids in 1984, coll° Saub, A.G.A.E., Cayenne (Figure 19).
- Blade: simple, rectangular; dimensions: 23.5 x 5.8 cm. This is the longest blade of the axes discussed here. The weight of the blade is 1620 gr. The stone is an andesitic tuffa.
- Hafting: the stone of this axe is inserted into the handle. There is adhesive material between handle and blade, also in the cavity (Figure 20).

7. Axe from Belém (Lower Amazon, Brazil).
A stone blade, a connecting part of resin and parts of a handle were found in the water at a beach in Abaetetuba Island in front of Belém, Lower Amazon, in Brazil.
- Blade: simple rectangular blade of green stone. Dimensions 12.5 x 5.6 x 4.4 cm. (Figure 21).
- Handle: diameter of the handle is ca 3.8 at the head and it is 2 cm in the lower section. The reconstructed length of three parts is 22.5. The handle was originally longer.(Figure 22).
- Hafting: latex reinforces the connection, and it is around the butt of the stone and in the cavity.
A striking element of this axe is that the blade is at 65 degrees of the handle. This is the only stone axe that is not perpendicular to the handle (Figure 23). In Amazonia this is rare, but in other parts of the world such angles are not uncommon.

8. Axe from the Mazaruni River (Guyana).
It was found at a depth of ca 5 m of water in the Upper Mazaruni River, “a mile or so below Imbamadai”.
- Blade: simple petaloid. Reported length 17 cm.
- Handle: according to measurements that Williams gives in his paper the handle would be 65 cm long and the thickened part of the handle would be 22.5 cm long.
When the reported values of 65, 22.5 and 17 cm are compared to the photograph supplied by Williams (1978:55) (Figure 24), it is obvious that these sizes cannot be correct. The handle is devil-doer, a resinous bush-rope with a close, straight grain. The head of the handle has a projecting part, a “large knob”.
- Hafting: this simple petaloid axe is inserted in a shaft and protrudes from the back side of the handle. The part in which the blade is inserted is wider than the lower part (Figure 25).

III THE STONE AXE IN THE GUIANAS AND AMAZONIA
Stone axes and their function in the Guianas and Amazonia are presented here according to the flow diagram that comprises six steps, from the collecting of raw material up to the dump of the tool.
1. choice of stone raw material and the collection of it.
2. transformation of coarse rock into final blade.
3. choice of the wood for the handle and the finishing of the handle.
4. connecting the blade to the handle.
5. use and functions
6. wear, devolutionary use, and dump.
Six sub-chapters are presented according to the steps outlined above.

1. The choice of stone raw material and the collection of it.
The choice of the stone species is essential for the quality of the blade of a stone axe. Different qualities and properties are required for the manufacture and finish of the blade, but also for the efficiency during use of it. The property of a regular abrasion during manufacture and sharpening is required and for this reason homogeneous rock species are preferred. Schistose rocks are avoided for a good resistence of the cutting edge. High-density rocks are preferable. Even if hardness is one of the preferred properties, it is not always a property of the axes from the archaeological context.
As has been discussed above, a large majority (97%) of the cutting tools in Suriname was made of fine-grained rocks without quartz, because the quartz component renders polishing and sharpening difficult (Boomert & Kroonenberg, 1977).

Axe-blades were made of specific rocks, and if these were not available locally, they were searched for or obtained from other areas. The stone blades found in the coastal areas of Suriname and French Guiana originate from rocks only available in the interior of the country. In Suriname, the people of the Brownsberg Culture supplied metabasalt axe blades to the coastal populations (Boomert & Kroonenberg, 1977) and the axe blade studied primarily in this paper may indeed originate from the rock reserves in the Brownberg area exploited by the Brownsberg Culture people. Elsewhere also such specialisations existed, for instance, the Trumai and Suyá of the Upper Xingu in Brazil had in recent times the monopoly of the exploitation of good-quality rocks and of the manufacture of stone tools (Lévi-Strauss, 1948).

2. The manufacturing process: the transformation of a rock into a blade.
Hammering, pecking and chipping precedes polishing during the manufacturing process. Sometimes rocks have simply been sharpened at one of their ends to make a cutting edge. The modern Akurio axes have a blade of irregular finish on which a sharp cutting edge has been made (Figure 26). This technique is rare in blades from an archaeological context. In the latter, the whole stone is worked and finished before the cutting edge.

There are two preform stages, the first one is a coarse treatment; the second one is more refined. The latter is followed by polishing. Such polishing is done on large rocks in which grinding grooves (Figure 27) form as a result. Both preform stages can be made at or near the location of stone extraction, such as was the case with the products of the Brownsberg Culture in Suriname. Of course, it is more efficient to work the tools in an environment with stones than, for instance, in Suriname’s stoneless coastal zone. In other cases, the rocks were transported to a village where they were worked. The rocks in the coastal zone of French Guiana facilitated stone being locally worked.
The first stage is the removal of large chips with the help of a hammering stone to obtain a general regular and axe-like shape. Certain bifacial axe-blades that were made of large chips, have a smooth lower part with a short or long retouche around the whole piece. Once the general shape has been reached in this way, a rough retouch finishes the preform.
Polishing is rubbing the stone on a rocky surface to smooth its shape. The use of sand is often thought to be indispensable for good polishing. Experiments, however, have demonstrated that it is too coarse for axe polishing, and a disadvantage (Rostain, 1994:344-5). Water is used to wash the stone-dust from the above discussed grinding groove. Such stone-dust tends to become a goo quickly. The time required to polish a blade varies according to the rock and the size of the blade. Experiments suggest that a small blade can be polished in two or three hours.
The above-discussed grinding grooves generally are found in large natural rock outcrops. Larger and smaller hollows result from the polishing activities. The polishing of the upper and lower extremities of the blade of a stone axe has left grinding grooves of an almond or boat shape (Figure 27). The working of the sides of the blades resulted in long and narrow grinding grooves.
Some details of specific shapes - such as the notches of notched axes or perforations - could not be obtained by rubbing the pieces against a large flat rock and have been made by the use of small tools of specific shape. Once polished, the sizes of the blade were significantly reduced as compared to the first preform.
Sometimes irregularities were kept at the butt for a better hafting in the handle (in cases where the blade is inserted in the handle). In some cases a better grip was achieved in this way between the axe and the handle by resin used to strengthen the hafting (see next section). After the polishing of the blade, the last finish is applied to the cutting edge. A good, sharp cutting edge may have been reached by very fine final polishing with the help of fine clay.

The morphologic typology for the blades of stone axes of the Guianas was made by Boomert (1979) for Suriname and by Rostain & Wack (1987) for French Guiana.
Two groups of blades are distinguished: those with one cutting edge and those with two opposing cutting edges. The most important group (with one cutting edge) is subdivided further into five subgroups: simple blades, winged blades, notched blades, grooved blades, and sculptured blades. The simple blade is the most frequently occurring type. It is followed by the notched blade, then the winged blade, and the grooved blade. The sculptured blade is extremely rare. In the nine hafted axes studied here, a single cutting edge and simple blades are predominant, but the Surinam one would be winged, and also the Matarony one. The Tourépé one is notched.
This typology seems to be related to the method of hafting. The simple blades and the notched or winged blades are not hafted in similar manner. Small and large axes occur in archaeological sites. Their size depends on the initial size and the period of use and frequency of sharpening. A more detailed discussion on typological differences in stone axes for Suriname is presented by Boomert (1979) and for French Guiana by Rostain & Wack (1987).

3. The choice of the wood for the handle and the finishing of the handle.
The variety of wood species in Amazonia is large. For a handle, wood that is flexible and strong is required. Such qualities are offered by a number of species. The Wayãpi choose the wood of Quararibea sp. and of Marliera gleasonii and the buttresses of large trees such as Swartzia remigera, and Aspidosperma nitida (Grenand, 1980). The wood of the complete axe found at Saut Mapaou in French Guiana is a Duroia.
The piece of wood that is chosen is first cut into the required size, and subsequently any bark is removed. The Akurio of Suriname make a cavity in the handle in which the blade is inserted with a hafted tooth of an agouti, Dasyprocta aguti (Bubberman, 1972).
It seems that the manufacture of a good handle may take a long time. In Irian-Jaya, for instance, the makers of hafted axes work 5-6 days on a handle, after months of drying of the wood. They have to choose, chop down and cut up a tree in the forest. They let it dry, cut off the selected branch and remove the bark. They work and scrape the piece with the tooth of a wild boar, polish it with silex-bearing leaves and make a hole to fit the blade (Pétrequin, 1988a).

4. The connection of the blade to the handle.
The most important distinction in hafting of Guianian/Amazonian axes consists of the inclusion or not of the blade in the axe. So there are two types:
1. the blade is inserted into a larger or smaller hole or hollow part of the handle. This type is called here hafting by inclusion.
2. the blade is tied, glued or fitted to a handle of which the upper part does not have a hole or hollow to receive the blade. This type is called here non-inclusion hafting.

Hafting by inclusion.
The blade is inserted in the hole or hollow made in the handle. Bush-rope and adhesive materials such as resin or natural rubber can be used to reinforce the bond. Sometimes, such as with the Akurio, the bush-rope constricts the handle to prevent it from splitting up. Barrère (1743) describes the polished blades of Galibi axes that are hafted in very strong wood and kept there by bush-rope (Bromelia Karatas) and by mani resin (Symphonia globulifera).
The Kashinawa of the Purús River in Brazil insert the blade one or two cm in the handle, against which it is kept by bush-rope passing through the blade’s notches, and by an encircling layer of resin mixed with bee’s wax.

There are some reports that this system of inclusion is used by inserting a blade into a hole made in a branch of a living tree. The tree continues to grow, constricting the stone blade stronger and stronger. After a certain time, the tree is cut and the branch with the stone fashioned into a handle. Stedman (1974, II:192), for instance, reports that some Indians hafted their stone axe blades in clubs by inserting the blades in bushes in full growth. He also shows such a war club (apatoe) with an inserted axe blade (Figure 28). The same method of hafting is reported for stone axes by Vellard (1939) of the Guayaki in Paraguay.

Non-inclusion hafting.
This type of hafting fixes the stone on the piece of wood. It is kept there with the help of bush-rope or with an encircling crust of adhesive materials, or by both. The notches and the ears of the blades supply a hold for the bush-rope. Also, the concave butt of some blades fits the round section of the handle.
Several species of bush-rope can serve to tie blade and handle together, such as the fibres or lianas of Bromeliacées, of Aracées, or the bark of Lecythidacées (Grenand, in litteris, 1992). The bindings can have been fixed in a wet condition; they subsequently tend to become very tight. Many recent groups in Amazonia today still use for their stone axes the non-inclusion technique.

Several additional features can complement this tool, either by their practical value, their aesthetic value, or their symbolical value.
The axe leaves the hands free when it is connected to a rope, which is useful when climbing trees to capture a bee-hive or palm-fruits. Some handles of axes have been covered with cotton threads or with plaited basketry.
Axes decorated by a plumage of feathers and/or cotton, are in general specimens that have lost their practical value. In general, to these axes should be ascribed a symbolical value.

5. Use and function.
Most Indian groups living in the Amazonian forest need a clearing to build their village. Moreover, neolithic farmers using slash-and-burn agriculture have to open up plots in the forest once in a few years. The stone axe with a polished blade was the basic tool for these activities of the neolithic populations across the Guianas and Amazonia during several millennia.
A chipped stone axe did not offer an equally strong cutting edge and the contours of its irregular shape had many places that were prone to crack. Also the cutting edge did not penetrate so well into the wood to be carved.
The hafted massive polished axe serves the requirements of tree cutting well, but, to prevent failure of blade and/or handle, one has to apply many relatively soft blows to the tree.
Several witnesses describe different techniques to chop down trees. De Goeje (1943) describes for the Akurio the cutting of trees with a small diameter. They attack the tree at a good distance from the ground with the axe in one hand around the total circumference of it. They cut about one third of the total diameter, and finally, they break it by hand.
Madowani, an old Yanomamö Indian from the Upper Erebato River (S-W Venezuela) tells while showing a stone blade:
This axe was my father’s and my grand-father’s. Today, it serves us to prepare yopo powder. You don’t know what is cutting a tree. Bum! Bum!... An axe-blow here, another one there, and your tree falls down (cut with an iron axe). We, with stone axe, need several days to chop down a tree. (After De Barandarian, 1967).

Fire was an important help in laying down large trees in the forest. Amproux notes in 1658 the following method to put fire at the foot of trees, while they are covered a little above the spot with moist moss to prevent the fire from creeping up. In this way they undermined the tree little by little (cited by Cruxent, 1970). On the Middle Orinoco, the Makiritare preferred wet clay above moss (ibidem).

Another method consisted of killing the tree by taking away a section of bark around the perimeter, to cut them, subsequently, more easily down. This method still was used recently by the Wayãpi: the Wayapi in Brazil made deeply cut rings around trees with their axes to let them die. Only one year later they undermined these trees with fire. Thus, an agricultural plot was prepared during two years..... The Wayapi of the Upper Oyapock tell that their "grandparents"; looked for forest areas with few large trees. Without doubt this strategy must be dated in the period of the stone axe (Grenand, in litteris, 1992).

The stone axe was a basic tool for various tasks of wood-working, and also other tasks:
- making of handles for tools, peddles, wooden metates, and sticks and clubs of hard wood.
- the cutting of wood for house posts, wooden seats, containers for cachiri, etc.
- the manufacture of canoes of wood, or of light bark canoes.
- the collection of honey. Ther is great store of hony in the Country, and although it bee wilde (being taken ou if trees, and buries in the earth) yet is it good as any in the world (Harcourt, 1926:95).
Honey has an important place in the life of several Indian groups. For instance, the Akurio distinguish 35 types of honey (Kloos, 1977). The Wayãpi know 13 bee species that produce comestible honey and they consider honey as the best drink, in earlier times worth specific festivities (Grenand, 1980a).
The collection of honey can, thus, become the most important use of the axe, like for the Xetá, the Guayaki or the Akurio. The beehives are most of the time at an altitude of 20-25 m in trees. The recovery of such a beehive often is fatal for Akurio (Kloos, 1977).
The axe serves to destroy the hard earth cover that protects the hive and to enlarge the opening behind which the hive is situated. The stone axe also serves for removing the hart of palms that are chopped down several months before the larvae will be harvested there.

- Symbolic functions.
The symbolic use of an axe, without practical use, can be ceremonial, totemic or magic. If the decorated axe has sometimes a function of tool (or weapon), such as the modern Bororo bows carrying totemic emblems belonging to groups, so some of the decorated axes must have a higher than utilitarian value, especially when their shape or other aspects render it useless for practical purposes. For instance, the axes in anchor shape of the Gê groups in Maranhão do not have any more a practical value. However, the blade keeps a functional aspect while the handle is decorated, and sometimes useless for practical purposes, or in some cases there is no handle.
The axe with the anthropomorphic handle from Saut Tourépé is very badly geared towards woodworking by its fragile hafting. It seems more probable that it had a ritual function. It is possible that this ritual function developed after the appearance of iron axes and the gradual disappearance of their stone counterparts.
According to De Barandarian (1967), the blades of stone axes preserved by the Venezuelan Yanomamö (Sanema-Yanoama) would symbolize their bond and association with their old villages. The ritual aspect of these blades that the Yanomamö ascribe to them, shows the important place in their life.

There are some recorded secondary uses of the tool:
- To work the soil: the handle of an axe of the Xetá presents a blunt point that seems to have been made this way for specific purposes: it can be used to make holes in the ground to place posts of a house in. The handle is pushed in the ground by hitting it with a heavy stone hammer (Kozák et al., 1979). The same handle can have been used as a spade to make pits that are part of animal traps. As a hammer: the stone axe breaks nuts and animal bones. The Xetá use it as such.
- Yopo-pounder; actually, the Yanomamö use old blades of stone axes to pound the yopo (Anadenanthera peregrina), their hallucinogenic powder. The fact that the Yanomamö refuse to exchange these blades, even in an advantageous deal, suggests that these tools have a larger value for them than the purely utilitarian one (see preceding paragraphs).
- The function as a weapon: the function of stone axes as weapons is not well-known. The club, the wooden sword and the bow are the preferred arms of Amazonian Indians. There are only few reports to suggest otherwise, among others, d'Evreux in Maranhão (North Brazil) in 1613-14. There are reports from the ethnographical context that stone blades were inserted into clubs, for instance by Stedman (1974:fig. XXIII).


6. Wear, devolutionary use, and dump.
The wood in Amazonia, often hard and silica-bearing, made the axe-blades blunt and they had to be resharpened on a regular base. The life cycle of an stone axe is difficult to judge because different factors have to be borne in mind: the petrographical qualities of the blade, the materials on which it was used, accidents, etc. The cutting edge is not crushed, but it becomes blunt, and small flakes can disappear from the cutting edge. Nearly all blades of stone axes in Suriname show traces of repolishing or resharpening (Boomert & Kroonenberg, 1977). Portable polishers-sharpeners of hard stone have been discovered in several archaeological sites. The grinding grooves at rocky outcrops also have served to sharpen blunt blades.
It happens sometimes that the cutting edge of a blade is accidentally totally destroyed. Under such circumstances a simple resharpening in not sufficient. It is necessary to make a complete new cutting edge. This renewal of the cutting edge is done by taking away small concoidal chips at all sides, in the same manner as during the fashioning of the preform.
A blade found in an Aristé rock-shelter at Ouanary in East French Guiana is very interesting in this respect, because its cutting edge has totally disappeared by taking away large chips. It is possible that this piece was used until it became too short for resharpening, and was dumped. Such very short blades suggest that these tools were used as long as possible until they were dumped.

During use, the blades are exposed mainly to two risks:
a transversal fracture and to accidental pseudo-coche (Figure 29) (Pelegrin, comm. pers., 1992).
The transversal fracture happens in the centre of the blade, and if the handle compresses the blade (in an inclusion type of axe), the blade will break up near the hafting (i.e. where the blade meets the handle). This happens when the blows are too oblique. The accidental pseudo-coche is the loosening of a part of the cutting edge.
The results of such accidents have been repaired in several archaeological pieces in the Guianas. After a transversal fracture, the blade is not more useful for a function as axe, and, in some cases, such pieces have been used for other functions. The same is the case with some completely worn-down axes.
For instance, a notched blade from an Aristé site in the Monts de l'Observatoire in East French Guiana was reused as an anvil or hammering stone, probably to fragment quartz (Figure 30). A broken notched blade in an Arauquinoid site near Kourou was refashioned by percussion to make a new tool with a chipped different cutting edge (Figure 31). A blade that was broken became again a useful tool in the shape of a hammerstone, grinding stone, polishing stone, anvil, etc.

IV - THE LAST STONE AXES IN USE
1. Stone axes made in this century
The study of the ethnographical data allows us to understand the aspects that hold true for all, or most, Amazonian stone axes:
- a length of the circular handle is between 30 and 75 cm, and a diameter of 2-3 cm on the average, with sometimes a thicker part at the blade-end
- the majority of the stone axes is hafted by inclusion, a minority is hafted by non-inclusion
- the hafting is often strengthened with resin or natural rubber, and/or bush-rope.

One can discuss here some special aspects of hafting that modern Indian groups use. For instance, the Akurio groups from South Suriname make axes of one specific model (Figure 32): the handle is made of strong wood, the length varies between 30 and 40 cm. The blade-part of the handle is round, thick, and the grip tapers out thin. Only the cutting edge of the blade is polished. The rough rest of the blade is forced into the hole in the thick part of the handle. Bush-rope strengthens the upper side of the handle, above and below the blade. The hafting of one of the studied Akurio handles is reinforced by resin.
The Nambikwára of Brazil haft blades of which only the cutting part is polished. The rest of the blade is rough and inserted in the handle and well tied by bush-rope. The Tupinamba of the 16th century had the same manner of hafting. The grooved blades discovered in archaeological sites may have been hafted in this manner.
The “anchor-axes” require great ingenuity and dexterity during manufacture. They were hafted by non-inclusion. The blade is in the centre of a short handle. Blade and handle are connected by cotton threads, that are also wound around the whole handle. Feathers and a rope are sometimes added. These anchor-axes are known from archaeological contexts in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Argentine and the Antilles. The Apinayé in Brazil distinguish two types of anchor-axes: large axes for warfare and small ceremonial ones (Nimuendaju, 1983:69). At this moment, the anchor-axes of the Apinayé (and the Krahô) have a ceremonial function (Figure 33).
Among recent Amazonian stone axes, three specimens are very similar to the one that was recently recovered in Suriname. All three are from Brazil: one from the Baniwa at the Atabapo River (Figure 34) one from the Katawixi (Jurua and Purus Rivers), and one of a group at the Padauari River (Ribeiro, 1988). They are all hafted by non-inclusion and the blade is fitted against the handle with the help of resin and bush-rope. The geographical division of the studied axes shows that the non-inclusion axes are most frequent in the area of the Upper Amazon, and the inclusion-type axes are most frequent in the Lower Amazon area. The total number of specimens, however, is too low to draw any conclusions. Nevertheless, it seems that the combination of handle and blade and their type of connection shows cultural and/or ethnic divisions, more than the blade only.

2. The replacement by iron tools.
The Europeans arrived in the Guianas and Amazonia with a new material that would replace stone. Stronger, sharper, and more efficient, the iron axe became a very attractive item for farming groups in the Amazonian forest. The advantages of metal, and more specifically of iron axes, were immediately evident to the Indians. The introduction of this new tool changed their way of life, sometimes deeply. Some types of work could be done more quickly and more easily. On the basis of field experiments at the Yanomamö, Carneiro (1979a & b) made calculations that show that opening up a clearing in the forest with a stone axe requires eight to ten times more time than with an iron axe. Other experiments such as those of Saraydar & Shimada (1971) in Amazonia and Godelier (1973) in New Guinea have resulted in slightly different figures, but it is evident that work with an iron axe is between 4 and 10 times more efficient than with a stone one.
The texts of the early travellers show the interest the Indians had for stone tools, even more than for glass beads. The iron axe was an essential item for the Jesuits for successful evangelisation of Indian groups (Métraux, 1959a). Father Chantre y Herrera writes the following: it is rare that Divine aspects draw them to our missions. They settle here only for very mundane reasons. We could do nothing without the axes that we distribute among them (cited by Métraux, 1959a). This interest for iron tools even results in attacks on European settlements. Métraux (1959a) thinks that acquiring iron objects has been, since the 16th century, one of the causes of warlike activities of the Indians. More recently, the Bora-Miraña of the Ampiyacu Basin in the Peruvian Amazon, ascribe the decline, and later the destruction of their society, to the introduction of metal tools (Rumabajke, 1993).

The arrival of metal axes has also caused a technological change that should not be overlooked. It reduced considerably the use of fire as a help for working wood. Some Indian groups today use sometimes pointed pieces of metal, when they lack real stone tools. They haft these pieces of metal in the same way as they used to haft stone axes. The Guayaki of Paraguay, for instance, haft metal blades precisely in the way they haft stone axes (Clastres, 1972: fig. 5). Two modern Yanomamö axes in the Belém Museum consist of metal blades inserted in a wooden handle and kept there by resin and bush-rope.
The replacement of stone by iron happened rather quick. The Jesuits and traders distributed in the 16th and 17th centuries metal tools on a large scale (Métraux, 1959a). To trade with the Indians, the priests Grillet and Béchamel had during their expedition “a box that contains trade ware that is popular with these people, such as axes, cutlasses, knives, mirrors and fish-hooks, etc” (Grillet, 1716:217).
The Indian trade routes were large in number, and facilitated groups without direct contact with Europeans, to obtain these new products. In 1695, Father Fritz (cited by Porro, 1985) describes a commercial Indian trade route that starts on the banks of the Rio Branco, where the Dutch supplied the Uaranacoacena with European materials. The latter exchanged it in the Lower Caurés, on the Middle Rio Negro with the Caburicena. The latter, subsequently exchanged the obtained items against shell pearls with the Yurimaguá, on the Amazon. This total route comprises about 600 km, as the crow flies. In the Guianas, a equally long trade route existed between the Lower Approuague and the Lower Oyapock, up to the Jari, the Cuc, subsequently to the Paru from where the products of the Amazon came (Hurault, 1972). The European products were, from the beginning of the colonisation on, part of the Indian system of trade, and of course they were traded through the traditional exchange routes. Perhaps these objects even made such routes more important than ever before.

V CONCLUSIONS
The exceptional find of the first complete hafted stone axe in Suriname indeed is a good opportunity to study the other complete specimens from the Guianas, and, in general, stone axes and their function in prehistory and history.
As things stand now the Suriname specimen is the fifth complete hafted stone axe known in the landmass bordered by the Amazon, the Orinoco and the Atlantic Ocean: three are from French Guiana, one is from Guyana, and the presently published Suriname specimen. Four more specimens (three from French Guiana and one from Brazil) are incomplete, but have blades and parts of the handle, and/or hafting preserved.
From the two main types of hafting existing in the Guianas and Amazonia, the Suriname specimen is of the non-inclusion type, i.e. the blade is not inserted in the handle, and there is no hole or hollow section in the handle to receive the blade. The blade is connected to the handle by a wad of resin or natural rubber. This part, however, harbours another component: a thickly fluid tar-like substance with a dark color is inside the resin outer part. Some of this substance penetrates through a crack in the resin wad, when the axe is held upside down.
There are traces of crossed strings on the resin, and this suggests that the connection was strengthened by bush-rope. In the sample of the Guianas (n=9) four specimens are hafted by inclusion, and five by non-inclusion.
The Suriname axe has a well-polished metabasalt blade, a very long handle, a resin connecting part that shows two enigmatic circular grooves, one at both sides. This could represent the end of a transversal pin. Such a transversal wooden pin would be unique. Perforated axe-blades exist, but up to now no hafted stone axes with such a blade are known. Only an X-ray photograph can prove if this hypothesis is true. In the second part the flow diagram of stone axes is discussed in six steps focussing on the Guianas and Amazonia. The information stems from at least 1000 stone axe blades from an archaeological context in studied collections, and from tens of axe blades and hafted axes from an ethnographical context.
The techniques to make a hafted stone axe are similar: selection of the stone, collecting it, and subsequently hammering, chipping, and polishing the stone, followed by the selection and making of a handle, connection of the blade and handle by inclusion or juxtaposition. Additionally, often natural rubber or resin and bush-rope is used to connect the parts or to strengthen the bond.
The main use of stone axes is the clearance of forest, but also general wood-working activities, such as making house posts, making canoas, wooden paddles, digging-sticks, and shovels, etc. It is also an important tool to reach the much-desired honey in trees. Exceptionally, stone axes might have been used as weapons, but certainly that was not a general use of them.
In total, stone axes were the most important tool in aboriginal Guianan and Amazonian society for wood-working, especially for farmers that used slash-and-burn agricultural techniques. The only other preserved wooden object from an archaeological context in Suriname, that is in the Suriname museum, a shovel from Prins Bernhard Polder site (Versteeg, 1985; Versteeg & Bubberman, 1992) (Figure 35) , without doubt was made with a stone axe.
The presently recovered stone axe is an important complement to the small number of complete pre-Columbian stone axes. Its long handle, the tar-like component inside the resin or natural rubber part, and the circular indentations in the resin part make it an absolutely unique specimen.