Stone Age axes found in box donated to Ermelo thrift store

A thrift store in Ermelo found three millennia-old hand axes in a box of donations. Museum Het Pakhuis, which took the axes for examination by archeologists, believes they come from the Stone Age and are around 5,000 years old, Omroep Gelderland reports.

“We were called by the thrift store asking if we wanted to look at a box with a special find,” Patrick van Reeuwijk, director of Museum Het Pakhuis, told the broadcaster. The thrift store sent a photo, and museum workers immediately recognized the historical hand axes. “I estimate that they are from the Late Stone Age. So you are talking about 5,000 years ago.”

It is unclear how the hand axes ended up in a box at a thrift store. The museum suspects they come from an old burial mound. Their origin will be thoroughly investigated. “We happen to have an archeology day on Saturday when several archeologists are present. They can then study the axes better.” If they turn out to be real, they’ll receive a special place in the museum’s collection.

Hand axes were originally made for chopping, but they eventually became more of a status symbol than a tool. “Nowadays, for example, we buy an expensive car to show our neighbor how much money we make. In those days, an ax had a similar status,” Van Reeuwijk explained.