‘Why I’m taking a prehistoric axehead that has sat in my study for 40 years back to Outer Hebrides'
For Gerald Ponting, an expert in the archaeology of the Outer Hebrides, it is time to take the little axe home.
For more than four decades, a “rare and priceless” 5,000-year-old stone axe head found in the Isle of Lewis has sat in the Hampshire study of archaeology expert Gerald Ponting.
But now, for Mr Ponting, 86, it is time to return the artefact home to the island where it was found.
Mr Ponting was gifted the Neolithic axehead by farmer Donald Macleod of Cromore, who found the piece embedded in the walls of a blackhouse, where such items were often placed for luck.
Mr Ponting, who lived on Lewis for roughly a decade and returned to his native Hampshire in 1984, has kept the axehead in his study ever since.
This weekend, he will travel to Stornoway and will hand the artefact over to Comunn Eachdraidh na Pairc Museum at Ravenspoint, where it will go on show, close to where it was discovered.
Mr Ponting said he was “excited” for the journey and the return of the ancient piece to the island.
“The axehead has been in my study for 40 years. When I have been giving talks, I have passed it around and people have been amazed to handle something that is over 4,000 -years-old,” he said.
Of taking it back to Lewis, he added: “I have decided that now it is time.
“I have argued in the past that the Elgin Marbles should be returned and the Uig Chessmen should be returned to Uig, so it didn’t feel right that I should keep a prehistoric artefact from Lewis in Hampshire.”
Mr Ponting moved to Lewis with his first wife in the 1970s, with the couple doing much to illuminate the archaeology of the islands, particularly the Calanais Standing Stones, and bridge the gap between academia and the communities living in the midst of some of the world’s finest prehistoric monuments.
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The axehead will go to the museum after the Treasure Trove Unit, which rules whether archaeological finds, deemed as ownerless property, should be claimed for the Crown. On this occasion, it was returned to Mr Ponting.
Mr Ponting then decided it should be handed to the museum, which sits just a few miles from where the axehead was found in the blackhouse walls at Gravir.
Dr Alison Sheridan, axehead specialist and retired former Principal Curator of Early Prehistory at the National Museums Scotland, has examined the artefact with colleagues.
It is believed the hard volcanic rock from which the axehead was fashioned is probably not native to Lewis but perhaps a glacial erratic brought by the ice from further north.
Its dark colour may partly reflect staining from smoke from the peat fire of the blackhouse, or leaching if the axehead had lain in peat.
Donnie Morrison, chairman of Comunn Eachdraidh na Pairc, said the artefact was “rare and priceless”.
He added: “We are delighted to add this important and fascinating local find to our museum collection at Ravenspoint.
“Many thanks to Gerald for this wonderful gesture. We will ensure that the axehead is preserved safely for the pleasure, interest, and education of future visitors as well as the community of Pairc.’
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