About The Implement Petrology Group

The Implement Petrology Group and its work in Britain and Ireland

Stone axe studies have played a crucial and central role in the development of prehistoric archaeology in Britain and Ireland over the last seventy years. Central to the approach of the Implement Petrology Committee (IPC) of the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) and its successor, the Implement Petrology Group (IPG) has been a systematic and rigorous approach to implement petrology and more broadly to stone axe research. This informed the research design and working strategy of the Irish Stone Axe Project which has been active since the early 1990s. In turn the work and methodology of the Irish Stone Axe Project, centred on the utilisation of a detailed, computerised database, has influenced what is now considered to be best practice in stone axe studies, worldwide. It is the model being used by the National Museums of Scotland survey of Scottish stone axes which is now underway.

The IPG archive of thin section slides and record cards was begun over 70 years ago with the founding of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western Group of Museums and Art Galleries on the Petrological Identification of Stone Axes. Following on the formation of the CBA, the IPC became a standing committee of the CBA. Its task was the organization of an implement petrology survey on a national basis. In its early years Leverhulme Trust grants provided the main financial support for the survey. From the late 1960s to the 1990s the IPC received an annual subvention from the CBA. With the re-organisation of the CBA standing committees in the 1990s the Implement Petrology Group developed from the IPC, now financially independent from the CBA but receiving strong support and guidance from it.

The Irish Stone Axe Project (ISAP) was begun in the early 1990s with significant funding from The Heritage Council. The specific objective of the ISAP was a national survey of all stone axes with an Irish provenance, incorporating the detailed petrological analysis of a significant sample of that population. The ISAP developed a centralised, computerised database of records, illustrations and petrological information. The National Museums of Scotland and Wales have been exploring the applicability of a similar system in the survey of the stone axes and related objects of Scotland and Wales respectively, with the critical aim of ensuring compatibility of these national databases. All of this current research and development in stone axe studies is facilitated and supported by and through active participation in the Implement Petrology Group.

As part of the development of European research frameworks there is a growing recognition of the need to improve research infrastructures, to enhance the quality of data and the potential for interoperability of data sets. In this context the Implement Petrology Group considers it a crucial step to establish formal linkages and interoperability between the national databases as they currently exist. This will build on the rich foundation of stone axe studies and keep it to the forefront of prehistoric research in Britain and Ireland and facilitate wider access to this data.